FEATURE Machine vision
Several inspections within production are possible Copyright: PackCheck
Automation and digitisation are advancing in the food industry, with inline quality management modular solution for ensuring
Checking on consistency in packaging E
nsuring safety and accuracy of correct packaging is a high priority in the food industry. In addition to the packaging packaging and labelling is also a challenge. These challenges can be solved through automation. “In automation projects, our classic advantages such as optimal utilisation of employee capacity, increased productivity, as well as less rejects. On the other hand, and this is particularly important for the food industry, producers are looking for end-to-end inline quality assurance for the packaging process,” explained Peter de Jong, Sales Manager and Co- Owner, of PackCheck.
PackCheck says customers are looking for ways to ensure consistently correct packaging in all their packaging lines. This also involves customer requirements, PackCheck developed a completely new modular inspection platform. The machine-vision-based platform provides a complete and seamless overview of the packaging process. For this purpose, inspection points are set up at relevant positions along the packaging line. Each checkpoint can integrate up to four cameras, which provide complete inline quality inspection. In addition to the hardware, the ViTrack system control software developed by PackCheck is used. Within that software, the MVTec HALCON machine vision software takes care of the image processing. PackCheck developed the inspection platform for food producers that have multiple production lines. “Our solution can be used at any point in a packaging line but also in a speed of the inspection platform also makes it short time,” explained de Jong. The inspection tasks performed by the machine-vision-based platform exceed the number of tasks that humans could perform.
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For example, in production lines that are not fully automated, quality control is only performed by employees on a sample basis. In addition, the human eye can never keep up with the speed, consistent objectivity, as well as endurance of an automated solution. end up in retail, leading to product recalls. These are caused by packaging defects as well as incorrect or missing allergen markings on packaging or labels. The goal of companies is to minimise the number of recalls as much as possible through inline quality control. This means that conclusions can be drawn in the event of frequently occurring defects.
Checking on consistency in packaging
powerful was another factor. With all these requirements, we quickly came across HALCON,” de Jong explained. The HALCON software from MVTec features a library of over 2100 operators. In addition to the software, PackCheck also took advantage of MVTec’s consulting services. The modular inspection system consists of camera systems with up to four cameras each and a track controller at the relevant points on the production line. The inspection platform has a modular design, number of camera systems can be used by a customer. The system is controlled by the ViTrack software developed by PackCheck. A robust interface is required for smooth interaction between hardware and software. Here, PackCheck uses OPC UA, a devices, automation systems and software applications.
Customers using the inspection platform need machine vision for two applications: quality control of packaging and for checking labels and markings. The technology is capable of performing surface inspection in milliseconds, recognising codes and characters, and reading them. This means that all information about a product, such as the packaging quality, best- before date and allergen listing, can be viewed at any time.
“When developing the scalable, modular solution that could be fully integrated. We also wanted to be hardware-independent and have programmable software in order to react the fact that the software had to be particularly
Once the system knows which product is being inspected, the inspection process begins. The actual inspection of the acquired image is carried out in the vision controller based on the inspection program using machine vision. The result is then sent back to the tracking controller. If the product is faulty, it is rejected, if it is OK, it is processed further. Machine vision processing with HALCON is executed on the vision controller. The modular inspection platform is capable of performing complex inspection processes at a speed of 100 packages per minute. The platform has already been in use by food companies since the beginning of the results and customer feedback.
MVTec Software
www.mvtec.com
Automation | December 2024/January 2025 27
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