Quality control Perfect caps every time: The role of machine vision in mass production

Related Vendors

MVTec Software GmbH

HASCO Hasenclever GmbH + Co KG

BORIDE Engineered Abrasives

Renishaw plc

Machine vision offers enormous advantages for many areas of application, such as quality assurance. In addition to high accuracy and speed, high flexibility and availability are also important for practical use. K&S Anlagenbau has implemented such an application for the control of bottle caps.

The production of bottles and bottle caps in the beverage industry is highly automated. The reason is simple: large quantities have to be produced quickly and reliably. It is important that the processes keep pace with the speed but also with the quality requirements. “Our aim is to make automated processes as safe and reliable as possible. This is the lever for being able to operate a process at high speed in the long term. Our approach is to take the hectic out of production processes. To do this, we rely on standardized tools that allow us to manufacture reproducible products reliably and quickly. Based on machine vision, we have developed a solution for inspecting porcelain bottle caps,” says Thomas Kelz, responsible for quality technology at K&S Anlagenbau. The company from Lengenwang, Bavaria has been developing automation solutions for the electrical, automotive, medical, and consumer goods industries for over 30 years. The company specializes in standardized modules with the option of individual adaptations. Together with the consulting firm Computer Vision Solutions Consulting & Research, the company has developed an application for the quality inspection of bottle caps for beverage bottles. This is primarily used to check the print image of the bottle caps. The consulting company was called in by K&S Anlagenbau because the team around Managing Director Dr. Markus Heber has many years of experience in the implementation of sophisticated applications that are implemented with machine vision technologies.

Maximum flexibility with a minimum of machine stops

The challenge in developing the new solution was to implement a quality control system that quickly and reliably detects faults in a fully automated process, but is also low-maintenance. Low maintenance means that the system can quickly and easily be switched to other product types and delivers reliable results. “Automation only brings decisive added value, if the customer has little effort in maintaining the system,” says Dr. Heber. In the newly developed system, quality control is carried out inline. To do this, the camera takes a picture of the bottle cap to be checked. The image of the imprint on the top of the cap is then checked using the algorithms of the machine vision software MV Tec Halcon.