Helping food & beverage manufacturers stay competitive Watch the demo videos - The challenge of high speed inspection - Producers of canned foods typically make large volumes of one particular product, such as tomato soup, and store the cans in a warehouse without labels while awaiting customer orders. The cans are labelled just before delivery, often with the customer’s own brand label.
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Cognex Newsletter
Vision Systems - Food & Beverage Industry
High speed inspection made easy
Helping food & beverage manufacturers stay competitive
Watch the demo videos
The challenge of high speed inspection
Producers of canned foods typically make large volumes of one particular product, such as tomato soup, and store the cans in a warehouse without labels while awaiting customer orders. The cans are labelled just before delivery, often with the customer’s own brand label.

Once an order is received, the cans need to be labelled as quickly as possible. The cans pass along a conveyor as fast as one every 60 milliseconds so conventional manual inspection is not possible.

Until now, the only known solution to this problem was to use machine vision by connecting a camera to a frame grabber board on a computer. However, this solution requires specialist hardware which is not designed to withstand a factory environment and is susceptible to damage from heat and dust. This solution also requires a considerable level of expertise to set up and maintain this type of system - expertise that is typically not found in a canning plant.
Inspecting 1,000 products per minute

To overcome this high speed inspection application, Matrix Technologies is utilising recent advances in vision system technology to develop a better approach to brightfield automated inspection. “The key to the new approach is the use of the Cognex In-Sight® 5600 vision system to inspect the product codes against the bright can background at a speed of 1000 products per minute,” said Les Haman, Department Manager for Matrix Technologies. The Cognex PatMax® pattern matching tool inspects the product code to recognise a pattern regardless of its location. Rather than reading individual characters the application is configured to simply look for an image that matches the three-digit product code.

Easy to configure, intuitive operation

The system is easy to configure, generating a new product code simply by presenting a can with the new code to the vision system and positioning a rectangular box around the product code using the intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). From that point, the vision system will detect that product code even if it is in a different position or at a different angle as long as it is in the field of view. This approach is much simpler, more robust and more economical than the machine vision technology used on this application in the past.

In-Sight 5000 series
The unprecedented vision power and unmatched ruggedness of the In-Sight® 5000 Series vision systems are helping manufacturers around the world improve productivity, ensure product quality and lower manufacturing costs. Available in a wide range of models ensures that there’s an In-Sight just right for your application.
Industrial-Grade Design

In-Sight 5000 Series vision systems are the only vision systems in the world that provide industrial-grade features as standard. Rugged die-cast aluminum and stainless steel cases that can withstand the punishment of vibration, sealed M12 connectors, and a protective lens cover for IP67 and IP68 rated protection against dust and moisture—it all adds up to peace of mind on the factory floor.

Unmatched Performance

Every In-Sight 5000 Series vision system delivers best-in-class performance. Most models are equipped with a full library of proven Cognex vision tools through the easy to use In-Sight Explorer software. Tools include easy-to-train code reading, OCR, inspection, measurement and colour tools plus, PatMax®, the industry standard for part location technology.

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