Product inspection for aerosol cans to improve efficiency and eliminate defects
- Four fully automated quality control systems for global consumer goods company
- High-res optical cameras paired with advanced machine vision software
- Carrying out multiple visual inspections within milliseconds
Shaving off production issues
The Challenge
Bytronic was asked by one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies to develop a vision inspection system to improve production efficiency and eliminate defects at its UK factory.
The plant produces a huge range of product types and variants, and the need for accurate labeling and quality control was vital.
Protecting its reputation for quality and product safety
Our Solution
We developed four systems for quality control that are now in use across six production lines – each built to ensure quality, efficiency and productivity.
Our systems carry out four important functions:
- Checking the crimps or valves on aerosol cans to make sure they are correctly sealed before they are pressurised;
- Checking the ‘bung’ at the bottom of each can is correctly fitted;
- Checking the barcodes on each can to ensure the correct bill of materials;
- Carrying out visual inspections to confirm that multi-packs contain the correct number of products and are correctly packaged.
These checks are completed at different stages of the production line, all carried out within milliseconds, to make sure no products are shipped with incorrect or defective packaging.
Our systems mean that every product produced on the site’s six production lines is checked without delay or disruption, avoiding costly returns or recalls, reducing waste, and improving reliability compared to manual inspection.
Most importantly, they help protect our customer’s reputation for quality and product safety.
High-res optical cameras paired with advanced machine vision software
How It works
Our systems use a series of high-resolution optical cameras created by our partner, Cognex, which we pair with our advanced machine vision software.
The software is programmed to recognise when a product or component is as it should be. This is then communicated to the production line so that defective items can be rejected instantly to be recycled or reprocessed.
For each system, there are several challenges which have been creatively overcome to ensure checks can be completed regardless of the possible orientations of the products as they move through the production line.
When checking the barcode on a cylindrical object, our system uses a matrix of six image scanners to read the barcode anywhere on the product.
While to check multi-packed products are correctly capped and wrapped, cameras analyse the silhouette of the finished pack to make sure it looks as it should, with all cans present and complete.
Preventing delays, recalls and wastage in a split-second
The Results
Today, Bytronic is helping the site to further reduce waste in its supply chain. We’re proud of our work helping our customer to produce millions of high quality products every year and delivering on its carbon reduction targets.
To discover more about our 3D vision inspection systems please click here.