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Departments: Quality Applications
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Cognex Corp.'s Checker 101

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FARO Technologies' FaroArm

Guaranteed Bottling Inspection
Cognex Corp.'s Checker 101

The automation solutions deployed in Ottakringer Brewery demonstrate the effectiveness and attractive cost/performance ratio of the Cognex Checker 101 sensor. Thanks to its use of the sensor, the Vienna, Austria-based brewery's inspection stations are now able to guarantee that beer crates and boxes of canned beverages contain the correct amount of product.

The brewery business is very competitive, and customer satisfaction is paramount to a brewery's success. Ottakringer, Austria's second-largest brewery, was able to make significant production and quality improvements while reducing costs by using the Checker. Image-based sensors are increasingly assuming the tasks previously performed by standard sensor technology.

The priority of the brewery's maintenance department is the inspection of beer crates and boxes. Ottakringer contacted the image-processing department of Cognex partner Schmachtl GmbH, which established the brewery's needs and priorities and subsequently recommended the deployment of a Checker 101 vision sensor for its inspection processes.

Additionally, Schmachtl provided a test Checker 101 and a product specialist when the solution was new to the company, and gave the maintenance team members the flexibility to set up the brewery's checking station themselves. The system uses a laptop computer to process Checker 101 inputs and inventory, making implementation simple.

The brewery started automatically inspecting boxes and crates with the Checker 101 in January 2006. The procedure involves passing each box along a running conveyor belt equipped with the Checker sensor to determine whether it contains 24 correctly inserted cans. The results of the check are transferred directly to the production control system. Because the Checker doesn't require precise positioning or alignment as with photoelectric sensors, the operator has only to point the Checker at the product being inspected. When the operator opens the Checker's CheckMate software, he or she will see exactly what the Checker sees. The operator just clicks on the "Get Started" button and the software provides step-by-step guidance through the setup process. First the operator enters line speed and direction, then measures with the provided ruler, and enters the distance to the package and size of the field of view. With a few final mouse clicks, the operator activates the part detector and inspection sensors, sets the output and tests the application.

Ottakringer Brewery's positive experiences with the checking system for boxes of cans encouraged its maintenance department to introduce the solution to other applications. The next step was to introduce a completeness check on beer crates. The existing inspection method needed to be replaced with a more modern, more flexible and more reliable checking technology.

In the past, a complicated system technology using many individual sensors was used. The in-house maintenance department decided to use Checker in February 2006; the job was complete by March. The simple, space-saving design prevented the company from having to make fundamental, expensive changes to the conveyor line. Besides checking if the bottles on the conveyor belt are filled correctly, Checker can also differentiate between bottles with light or dark tops, thus performing an extra quality inspection on the bottling line. The intelligent sensor also automatically adjusts to the respective product to determine whether an 18-, 20- or 24-bottle crate is on the line. This prevents the operating staff from having to modify the checking station when changing the job type. The checking station now operates on a two- to three-shift basis and reliably inspects beer crates at a rate of approximately one per second, automatically stopping the production belt if a fault is detected. The integration of the Checker into the control technology of the brewery's production system was easy due to its standardized interface.

Cognex Corp.'s Checker 101

Benefits:

  • Compact, independent, all-in-one solution
  • Analyzes up to 500 images per second
  • "Train and Go" capability
  • Up to 16 user configurations, allowing it to automatically switch uses in real time

www.cognex.com