EVT’s HotGlue Inspector inspects if the adhesive points between cardboard surfaces of boxes, are present and hot enough to glue the cardboard box together. With up to 60 boxes or bottles per second (which amounts to 3600 boxes per minute).
The cameras can be arranged so that the sides with the adhesive points are in the field of view of the thermal imaging camera. The EyeVision HotGlue Inspector inspects if the glue has been applied to all adhesive joints and if the temperature of the glue at the joint is ranging inside the threshold. Therefore it is guaranteed that the cartons are glued together at the joints and are not falling apart and causing the bottles to tumble out of the box during transportation neither during the transportation from production site to the shop nor when transported by a customer.
If a glue is missing at an adhesive joint, because either a nozzle is blocked or the glue has not been fed, then this is detected automatically. It will be also detected, when the temperature of the glue is too low. This can happen, when the heating is defect or due to a delay in the plant. In case only one or more adhesive joints are showing are temperature that is not hot enough, then the error can be matched to the respective gluing device. Therefore it can be determined where a repair is necessary. And when all adhesive joints show a temperature which is too low then the carton can be ejected completely.
The EyeVision HotGlue system has digital interfaces to allow for an autonomous operation on a plant. This can be carried out via a Profinet interfacein the EyeVision software. And an integration into an existing PLC is therefore achieved.
To run the system in a broader context, the EyeVision HotGlue Inspector has a standard tracker interface. A connection to a transport system, as well as a delayed ejection of goods is therefore possible. The tracker interface can be adjusted to the common standard tracker boards.
The setup of the test facility for the HotGlue Inspector is carried out completely graphical. The threshold for each adhesive joint can be either specified globally, for groups or for each adhesive joint separately. Therefore, it is possible to detect the faulty adhesive joint and to repair the respective gluing device.
Due to a flexible amount of the applied cameras, the EyeVision HotGlue system can be adjusted to the application at hand. When the adhesive joints should only be inspected on one side, then a system with only one camera is sufficient. When more than one side should be inspected then two sides can be inspected with only one camera, which means two cameras are sufficient. Or four cameras – one camera for each of the four sides – can be used.
In case large adhesive points should be inspected on the joints, then a cost-effective thermal imaging camera with 291 x 190 pixel resolution can be applied. But if several small adhesive points should be inspected, a camera with 640 x 480 pixel resolution is necessary, to detect the hot glue points.
The use of the EyeVision HotGlue Inspector allows a hardware selection, adjusted to the respective application. The graphically programmable EyeVision software offers an adjustment to the different inspections of adhesive joints. The system can be used with different inspection programs. Those can contain the temperature thresholds and the amount of adhesive points that should be detected.
The integration of the system into a complex plant is supported by the embedded mode. This means that the system has a protocol implemented, which allows the setup as well as the operation from any desired remote system. The results of the measurements and the evaluation images are therefore immediately available for the line control.
The EyeVision HotGlue system is available in different speed levels, depending on the applied cameras. The basic system can inspect 10 containers per second, whereas the high end system can inspect up to 60 containers per second.
In addition the HotGlue system can be equipped with standard 2D cameras. Those can then read codes (bar codes, DMC, QR or OCR/OCV) on the outside packaging, to guarantee a complete tracking of the production.
For more information, visit EVT website.
