EPIC’s machine vision engineer, Chris Walker, worked with Vision Systems Design Magazine on an article featured in their technology trends section for their November 2015 issue.
The article was based around a high speed bottling line project that EPIC Systems recently completed for a major soft drink producer. The client was in need of a vision system that could inspect 6oz plastic bottle at speeds of 900 units per minute while withstanding harsh conditions caused by wash down and sterilization of the bottles.
The vision system needed to inspect for correct cap position, perform tamper band verification and check for the presence of the date code on top of the cap.
In order to inspect for all three criteria while the bottles were moving at such a high speed, four In-Sight 5600 smart cameras from Cognex and a flat dome light were mounted on the bottling line. The cameras and the dome light were placed in separate enclosures to protect them during sterilization and wash down procedures.
Walker and his team interfaced the four cameras over Ethernet to a ControlLogix PLC. They then used a PanelView graphic terminal that is interfaced to the ControlLogix PLC to allow the operator to have visual images of the areas on the bottles as they are captured. The combination of Congex’s Vision view software and Allen Bradley’s Factory Talk View software gives the advantage of operating the system and visualizing the images from one HMI.
For more details on the application, click here to read the full article in Vision Systems Design Magazine…
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