PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2020

INSPECTION 24 PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 07+08/20 www.petpla.net Automated pull-off tester While the majority of plastic beverage closures undergo quality inspection by inline camera systems, optical inspection does not discover all potential functionality errors that can affect performance during or after the application to the bottle. Industry standard practice for checking closure functionality is batch sampling: periodically taking a selection of caps to a laboratory for analysis. As this is time consuming, it is done only a few times each day. If defects are discovered, all closures produced since the previous check will usually be scrapped. This can mean the scrappage of in excess of a million closures. With CapLab, PackSys presents an automated TE-band quality inspection system which inspects samples according to a freely definable frequency. Inline TE band inspection The CapLab system offered by PackSys is an inline, automatic inte- grated unit for testing the functional- ity of a closure’s tamper evident (TE) band. It takes samples from the slitting/ folding machine outfeed and meas- ures inline the pull-off strength of the closure’s TE band. It can, optionally, be combined with an optical inspec- tion system that can select closures by cavity number. Test frequency can be set by quantity – e.g. every 100,000 caps – or by time: every three hours, for example. Sampling can be selected randomly, according to the spindles of the slitting machine, or by cavity number of the production mould and by quantity. Test sequences can also be triggered manually, e.g. at the start of a production shift. CapLab can also be connected in- line to systems producing closures with moulded, rather than slit, TE bands. Automated adjustment The values found by CapLab inspection may indicate the need for corrective action. Temperatures of knives used by slitting machines to form bridges, for example, can be monitored and changed to keep values within target range, in a fully automated process that will main- tain cap quality over the lifetime of a knife. Communication to the moulding machine and mould will enable the line to be stopped in the event of a major quality defect. Where the root cause of unacceptable TE band performance can be linked to a specific cavity on a mould or spindle on a slitting machine, the operator will be informed to address the root cause directly. Data management The CapLab system has its own screen for operation and data analysis. The database can be transferred easily to onsite production data monitoring or QC systems. Customised screens showing the measurements per cavity can be accessed directly at the user interface of the injection moulding machine. The flexible interface allows various layout options. PackSys says that CapLab’s compact design enables integration onto existing lines with existing optical inspection systems. www.packsysglobal.com INSPECTION CapLab is an inline, automatic inte- grated unit for testing the functionality of a closure’s tamper evident (TE) band.