PACKAGING
‘Te traditional production line is transforming into a production matrix’
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vision provider Sick is aiming for with its AppSpace software platform, which the company is supplying for automating new, increasingly flexible packaging lines. Te company has worked with a European food packager that supplies supermarkets, which is capable of carrying out single- figure production runs, enabling it to deliver tailored orders. In a world of sustainability this means less waste. If products can simply be made to order, companies no longer have to worry about making large batches of products just to cover potential – rather than guaranteed – orders. ‘Tis is having an impact on how we, as
vision firms, are developing our technology,’ remarked Neil Sandu, the new chairman of UKIVA and Sick’s UK product manager for imaging, measurement and ranging. ‘We are having to design our systems to be equally as flexible as modern production technologies, to better meet challenges posed by production and packaging.’ Sandu explained that, rather than
having long production lines for single types of product, autonomous mobile robots can now transport different types of product around a factory for processing at different workstations. ‘Tis enables single production systems to process multiple types of product, rather than one system being required on each different production line,’ he said. ‘Te traditional production line is transforming into a production matrix, with its different workstations dotted around the factory floor.’ Sandhu said that Sick is moving to more
general solutions that can be tailored to a wider range of tasks, and be configured easily without specialist knowledge in machine vision. Rather than having to design a camera for new tasks, the company will instead develop a software app to add to its AppSpace platform. Te apps can then be downloaded directly onto a smart camera and configured from a web browser. ‘In doing this, our cameras can be
flexible enough to move with the times in production and packaging,’ said Sandhu. He said that a camera with a label-
checking app, for inspecting best-before dates or label position, could be redeployed with a robot guidance app that lets it be used in a different part of the factory for pick-and-place tasks.
Smart cameras such as Sick’s Inspector P camera can carry out different tasks simply by uploading new software apps
Sick has had to employ software
developers and create branches of its business to deal directly with software, according to Sandhu. He noted that multiple vision firms are going down the app development route, although he said this does not mean traditionally hardware- oriented vision firms, such as Sick, are now looking to take on dedicated machine vision software firms such as MVTec, or software giants such as Microsoft. Sandhu said that Sick is partnering with such firms to enhance its capabilities.
Multi-purpose 3D In warehouse automation LMI Technologies says the logistics sector has undergone a shift from assessing shipping fees strictly by weight, to also charging by dimensional weight. It means LMI’s 3D profilers are now being used to measure box dimensions, as well as to scan open boxes to determine fill volume based on 3D height map data. Te firm’s wide field of view Gocator 2490
3D laser profiler, released last year, can be used for both tasks. Te Gocator 2490 has a 1m2 scan area, and operates at a rate of 800Hz and 2.5mm resolution in all three dimensions. Data from the sensor can be used to
sort packages into appropriate locations depending on their size. Te same sensor could also be used to determine the fill volume of open boxes, so that individual boxes can be packed efficiently. A third use is for robot palletisation and depalletisation,
24 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021
where the sensor is mounted on a robot arm and gives precise positional co-ordinates to tell the robot which boxes to handle on the pallet. Here, the Gocator 2490 sensor’s wide field of view is able to cover the entire pallet and its contents in a single scan. Robot calibration algorithms are built into the sensor to increase its ease of integration. In addition to dimensional gauging,
packages also need to be inspected for surface defects. Receiving and sorting centres usually conduct this type of quality inspection, checking for surface defects such as dents, tears, punctures and folds. Te 3D sensors can be used here too, to scan the exposed sides of boxes travelling on a conveyor, providing real-time defect detection to flag damaged packages. Pass/ fail control decisions are stamped with time and position information for every box, with each decision tag representing an outcome to be communicated to downstream sorting equipment. As if that wasn’t enough to demonstrate
the flexibility of modern 3D smart sensors, the same systems can also be used for scanning barcodes to ensure traceability in logistics. Built-in software running in LMI’s Gocator sensors enables engineers to scan and read data encoded in 1D barcodes or OCR data from a 3D scan, without the need for 2D vision cameras or specialised barcode readers. Te flexibility of vision devices is making them much more attractive as a tool to help automate packaging lines and warehouses alike. O
@imveurope |
www.imveurope.com
Sick
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