DE9415768U1 - Device for checking bottles for deviations from the norm in the form of damage and / or foreign bodies - Google Patents

Description

• (* ♦ ·· »4 t

Device for checking bottles for deviations from the norm in the form of damage and/or foreign bodies.

The device relates to a device for checking bottles for damage and/or contamination according to the preamble of claim 1.

Such a device is known, for example, from DE GM 9310623.8.

The known inspection machines all have disadvantages, which mean that occasionally dirty and/or damaged bottles pass through the device without these bottles being recognized as damaged and/or damaged.

The reasons for non-recognition are often due to the shape of the bottles and the different glass thicknesses and curvatures of the material. The degree of transmission of light that passes through the individual areas of the bottle to be checked depends on how thick and curved the bottle material is at that point. Thick, curved areas of the bottle appear darker than flat and thin areas when viewed through transmitted light. In addition, differences in transmission are caused by tolerances in the material thickness.

The transmission rate of the bottle is also reduced if there are foreign bodies or residual liquids in or on an area of the bottle.

For the practical examination of bottles, it is therefore very important that the bottles have curved areas and areas of different thicknesses, because problems arise in identifying the causes of different transmissions: Reduced transmission can be caused by a thick and/or curved area in the bottle material as well as by contamination and/or residual liquid in the bottle.

fäfe e6r -

• · ♦ *

An optical detection system that uses transmission as a decision criterion for sorting out bottles often cannot distinguish whether a local reduction in transmission is due to permissible tolerances in the material thickness of the bottle being examined or to the presence of residual liquid and/or contamination.

It is therefore an object of the invention to create a device in which a different transmission of the bottle material caused by tolerances in the material thickness is compensated and thus the reliable detection of residual liquids and/or contamination is made possible.

This problem is solved by the characterizing features of the main claim.

The invention makes use of the knowledge that local differences in the amount of light penetrating the bottle to be examined, which are due to the shape (curvature and/or material thickness), can be compensated for by locally changing the intensity of the light source with which the bottle is illuminated.

A large-area light source, which should be at least as large as the illuminated part of the bottle, is particularly advantageous. The individual segments can now be individually varied in their light intensity.

Segments that illuminate thick and/or curved areas of the bottle to be examined are operated with a higher luminance, segments that illuminate flat and/or thin areas of the bottle to be examined are operated with a lower luminance.

When X-raying bottles of the same type, a lighting profile adapted to this bottle type can now be created using a clean reference bottle.

•••&tgr;··· ' ' is ·

In this way, it is possible to achieve uniform illumination of all bottle areas examined, regardless of the shape and/or thickness of the bottle type to be examined.
5

Any differences in transmission that still occur during the examination are probably caused by residual liquid and/or contamination in the bottle and lead to the bottle in question being rejected.

The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to a figure and the list of reference symbols.

During the examination, the bottle 1 to be examined is held suspended above the lighting unit 3 by two holding elements 2 that engage laterally on its side wall.

The inside of the bottom of the bottle is inspected using a camera system 4. The beam path has a special feature in that it is crossed in the neck area of the bottle, which makes it possible or easier to inspect bottles with a relatively narrow and/or long neck.

The camera system is connected to a control system 5 to which the lighting unit and other components not shown, e.g. an ejection system, are connected. 30

The inspection is carried out over a large area, which is mentioned here because this is not clearly evident from the selected, cut-away representation.

The lighting unit is also flat and has a larger area than the bottom of the bottle to be examined. The lighting unit is divided into individual segments. The brightness of these segments can be individually regulated.

Si fire &<-

The bottom area of the bottle 1 examined can be roughly divided into a curved area la and a flat area Ib. The transmission in the curved area la is now lower than in the flat area Ib. To achieve a

In order to achieve uniformly strong illumination of the regions la and lb, the invention provides for the segments whose light illuminates the curved region la to shine correspondingly brighter.
10

The light flowing through bottle 1 is now evenly hot. and the detection of foreign bodies and/or liquid residues is made much easier.

List of reference symbols

Bottle 1 curved area la flat area Ib holding element 2 Lighting unit 3 Camera system 4 Control 5

Claims (2)

Protection claims 1. Device for checking bottles for deviations from the norm in the form of damage and/or foreign bodies, with - a lighting device which emits light rays through the bottle to be examined and a photosensitive sensor which detects the light rays emanating from the lighting device and the transmittance of the light rays penetrating the bottle pixel by pixel and a control unit which detects the presence of deviations from the norm based on the signals provided by the photosensitive sensor,
characterized in that - the lighting device (3) consists of a plurality of independent individual light sources and the individual light sources (3a) can be independently adjusted in their luminous intensity. 2. Device according to claim 1,
characterized in that those independent light sources (3a) which have a higher luminous intensity than the other light sources of the lighting device (3) in those areas (la) of the bottle (1) which have a reduced transmission for light sources due to the shape and/or material thickness.