PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2020

LABELLING 40 PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 05/20 www.petpla.net Industry 4.0 solutions find their way into the labelling process The times in which inspection systems only sort out defective products are definitely over. With the introduction of more and more digital interfaces in everyday production, inspec- tion systems are increasingly responsible for smooth and efficient processes. This does not even stop at the labelling processes. LABELLING The application of Industry 4.0 solutions in the labelling process is very much dependent on the use of vision inspection systems. The measurement results of these quality inspection systems are the data basis for all decisions in a labelling line. Essentially, there are three possible applications: data export, data import and connection to other machinery. Data export This is certainly the simplest and still the most widespread use of vision inspection systems in the labelling process. The system, which is integrated into the production line, collects a multitude of quality data for each object passing through and transmits this data into an on-premise database or into a cloud. Defective objects are sorted out immediately. The LabelWatcher from Intravis, for example, inspects all applied labels for up to 180,000 objects per hour and delivers a wide range of inspection results for key parameters for each label. This data offers insights for differ- ent interest groups. On one hand, the quality laboratory gains information about the quality of the respective pro- duction line. On the other hand, the plant management gets more insights about the efficiency of production lines, shifts and is able to compare and challenge whole production facili- ties. In addition, these datasets are used to provide customers compre- hensive reports on the quality of the respective delivery. Data import While the classical flow of data leads out of the inspection unit, the trend of importing data into the inspection system has increased sig- nificantly in recent times. In particu- lar, codes that appear for a specific product or batch play a major role in the process of data import. Here, the inspection system performs a compar- ison of an applied code with the codes in a database. If the codes match, the products are further processed and released for shipping. Interaction with processing machinery Furthermore, vision inspection systems matter increasingly as a control unit in an automated label- ling process. This kind of applica- tion promises immediate efficiency enhancements and a rising production line productivity. Three different appli- cation types can be distinguished as inspection solutions. Feedback to labelling machine: The vision inspection system deter- mines whether or not an offset of the label to a pre-defined optimal position exists. If so, the system sends the offset value directly to the labelling machine. Based on this value, the labelling machine adjusts the dispens- ing head to the right or left or up or down. The LabelWatcher has a spe- cial equipment, as Klaus Schön- hoff, CTO of Intravis, outlines: ”Our LabelWatcher can not only cope with one but with two different dispens-