INDUSTRY 4.0 / SMART FACTORIES W
ith the support of MVTec Software GmbH, the company PackCheck has developed a modular solution for ensuring packaging quality. Ensuring safety and
accuracy of correct packaging is a high priority in the food industry. In addition to the packaging quality, the high variation of different packaging and labelling is also a challenge. These challenges can be solved through automation. “In automation projects, from 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,” explains Peter de Jong, Sales Manager and Co-Owner, of PackCheck BV. The Netherlands-based company was founded in 2010 and provides visual quality control solutions for the food and beverage industries, agribusiness and logistics. In exchanges with customers, PackCheck
experienced that they were looking for ways to ensure consistently correct packaging in all their packaging lines. This also involves to package quality. To meet these customer needs, 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 a complete inline quality inspection of the packaging and labeling process. 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. For sparring partner, PackCheck counted upon the expertise of MVTec, the company that contributes the machine vision software.
MODULAR MACHINE VISION SOLUTION ENABLES END-TO-END QUALITY CONTROL 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 possible to inspect many different products in a short time,” explains de Jong. The inspection tasks performed by the machine- vision-based platform exceed the number of tasks that humans could perform. 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.
MACHINE VISION MEETS EVERY TASTE
Automation and digitisation are advancing in the food industry, inline quality management is benefiting from this; continuously monitoring packaging production with machine vision increases efficiency and significantly reduces the number of recalls.
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 minimize the number of recalls as much as possible through inline quality control, while gaining even better insight into their own processes and using them for ‘forensic purposes.’ This means that conclusions can be drawn in the event of frequently occurring defects. This improves the production process and can, for example, reduce waste.
CONSULTING SERVICES DIRECTLY FROM THE MANUFACTURER Machine vision offers the advantage that it can be used for different 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 can be
14 MAY 2025 |
viewed at any time. This includes, for example, the packaging quality, whereabouts, best- before date and the listing of allergens. PackCheck chose MVTec HALCON as its
machine vision software. “When developing the scalable, modular platform, it was could be fully integrated. We also wanted to be hardware-independent and use programmable software in order to react course, the fact that the software had to be particularly powerful was another factor. With all these requirements, we quickly came across HALCON,” de Jong explains the decision-making process. The HALCON software from MVTec, a leading international manufacturer of software for industrial image processing based in Munich, features a library of over 2100 operators. In addition to the software, PackCheck also took advantage of MVTec’s consulting services. “Together with MVTec’s experts, we were able to overcome this involved practical questions about image processing in matching applications,” explains de Jong.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58
