Brian Vernet

Hot filled plastic containers are designed with vacuum panels or rings in the body side wall. These panels or rings help the container hold its shape after the container has cooled and drawn a vacuum. The contour of the “H” panels or vacuum panels can interfere with the inspection process on some container designs. Containers with rings in the sidewall typically do not interfere with the inspection process.

The T4000-Dual Sensor Compression system fi nds and rejects leaking and damaged fl exible bottles at production line speeds up to 250 feet per minute. The system is designed with dual parallel belts suspended over the customers’ existing conveying system. As the container passes through the system, the dual parallel belts apply force to the sidewall of the container. This action compresses the headspace of the container which allows a comparative measurement to be taken at both the infeed and the discharge of the system. Comparing the container to itself between the infeed and discharge of the system, eliminates typical variations seen in the production environment (Fill Level, Product Temperature, and Container Density). Utilizing advanced DSP technology the T4000 controller analyzes the comparative measurement and assigns a merit value to each container. If the merit value is outside of the acceptable range, a reject signal activates a remote reject system.

X-Ray technology is used to measure the product fill level in steel, aluminum, glass, plastic and paper containers. An X-Ray tube energized at high voltage is used to produce a low energy X-Ray beam. This X-Ray beam is focused to look through the container in the expected fill level region. As the X-Ray beam penetrates the container, it is attenuated by the amount of product blocking the beam. The beam is monitored by a scintillation detector, which counts the X-Ray intensity after it goes through the container. The level of intensity is proportionate to the fill level of the container. User set rejection limits defines the high or low fill threshold. Five cans of craft beer with proper fill levels were passed through the X-Ray sensor with one can intentionally made to represent a “bad” can with a reduced f ill level. This series of tests clearly demonstrates the abilities of the TapTone T-550 X-Ray sensor to identify and reject cans with improper fill level.

X-Ray technology is used to measure the product fill level in steel, aluminum, glass, plastic and paper containers. An X-Ray tube energized at high voltage is used to produce a low energy X-Ray beam. This X-Ray beam is focused to look through the container in the expected fill level region. As the X-Ray beam penetrates the container, it is attenuated by the amount of product blocking the beam. The beam is monitored by a scintillation detector, which counts the X-Ray intensity after it goes through the container. The level of intensity is proportionate to the fill level of the container. User set rejection limits defines the high or low fill threshold. Five cans of craft beer with proper fill levels were passed through the X-Ray sensor with one can intentionally made to represent a “bad” can with a reduced f ill level. This series of tests clearly demonstrates the abilities of the TapTone T-550 X-Ray sensor to identify and reject cans with improper fill level.