PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2015

INSPECTIONS / LABORATORY EQUIPMENT 24 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 05/15 www.petpla.net Preforms inspected all around Today’s production processes in the plastic packaging industry are faster and more elabo- rate than ever. They are driven by end-users’ continually increasing requirements, indus- try-wide pricing pressures and increasingly strict legal requirements, which demand that a higher proportion of material should be recovered and recycled. These factors – and the use of recycled material in particular – com- bine to make preform production more challenging. Black spots, bubbles, contaminates, colour variation and a range of other faults and errors can impair the quality of the end product, and quite visibly. Detailed quality inspection In order to avoid the quality of the packaging product being compro- mised in such ways, quality inspec- tion – mainly inline, undertaken during the production process – is necessary. Furthermore, inspection should not add to production cycle time, faulty items should be sorted out automati- cally. Intravis, a leading producer of optical inspection systems for the plastic packaging industry, says that its PreWatcher III meets all these requirements. According to Intravis, the system incorporates “state of the art” inspection technology and has been optimised for integration into the production line. It undertakes 100% inspection of preforms, during produc- tion and according to defined error types, at rates up to 72,000 objects/h. Visitors to NPE 2015 in Florida were able to witness demonstration pres- entations and see for themselves how the PreWatcher III delivered on its promises. The PreWatcher III At eight square meters, Pre- Watcher III’s has a very small foot- print. Intravis says that is made possible by an advanced process that adjusts and inspects the objects. Its newly-developed orientation mecha- nism uses centrifugal force. After a gentle adjustment, preforms are transported into a presentation device at controlled intervals. The preforms are first transported by the neckring, which enables both the mouth and the base areas to be visible from above. Then the preforms are sucked with their mouth opening towards the presenting device, so they are entirely visible from the side and can be rotated around their own axes, ena- bling inspections from all sides. Eight colour cameras provide 360° inspection. Six of them inspect the body and the thread and the other two inspect the mouth area and the injec- tion point. There are no “dead areas” caused by conveyor belts or gripper arms. The system is constructed in order to ensure inspection of every area of the object. Defective preforms are sorted out by air pressure. Easy to integrate The PreWatcher III can be installed in-line behind an injection moulding machine. Off-line inspec- tions can be provided in combina- tion with a bunker, a dumper and an octabin diverter. Its versatility is yet Eight high-resolution cameras provide an all-around-inspection of the objects I N S P E C T I ON S & L A B O R A T O R Y E Q U I P M E N T