JP6355247B2 - Transmitted light inspection equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a sorting device that excludes a bag-filled product that has been determined as a defective product by an inspection device, and a sorting system that includes the inspection device and the sorting device.

  When manufacturing a bag-packed product with a packaging machine, if the contents are caught in the seal part of the bag, the bag will be incompletely sealed, resulting in deterioration of the quality of the contents or filling from the bag Gas escapes and the contents are crushed. For this reason, in this type of production line, a biting sensor is installed in the packaging machine, or a defective seal inspection device is installed on the downstream side of the packaging machine, so that a defective bag is excluded from the production line. Yes.

  For example, a packaging machine described in Patent Document 1 is known as a packaging machine equipped with a biting sensor. In this packaging machine, when the horizontal sealing machine performs horizontal sealing with a tube-shaped bag interposed therebetween, the holding interval is detected by a proximity sensor, and if the detected interval is larger than a predetermined value, the horizontal seal portion has been bitten. to decide. However, in this type of packaging machine, when sandwiching a tubular bag, the upper end portion of the preceding bag and the lower end portion of the subsequent bag are laterally sealed simultaneously, so even if biting into the lateral seal portion is detected, It cannot be discriminated which bag is bitten. Therefore, when biting is detected, both bags are excluded from the production line.

  On the other hand, as a seal defect inspection apparatus installed on the downstream side of the packaging machine, for example, an X-ray inspection apparatus described in Patent Document 2 below is known. In this X-ray inspection apparatus, the biting of contents into the seal portion is inspected based on an X-ray transmission image obtained by irradiating each bag with X-rays. Therefore, it is possible to inspect the seal failure with respect to each bag with high accuracy.

JP 2012-98162 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-127862

  In the former wrapping machine, the proximity sensor detects the biting into the horizontal seal portion, so if the biting object is minute and easily flattened, it may not be detected. For example, even a high-precision proximity sensor cannot be detected if the deviation caused by biting is less than 1 millimeter. On the other hand, in the latter X-ray inspection apparatus, if the X-ray transmission amount of the bitten object is different from the X-ray transmission amount of the seal portion, it is detected from the grayscale image, so it is very small and flat. However, there is a feature that can be detected reliably.

  However, in the X-ray inspection apparatus, there is a problem that there is no bitten thing and it is impossible to detect a bag whose seal is incomplete. For example, when sealing a bag with a vertical pillow packaging machine, the upper end portion of the preceding bag and the lower end portion of the succeeding bag are simultaneously sealed. As shown in FIG. 1, the sealed portion of the preceding bag A1 is sealed. When the content piece C is bitten into S2, a region R incompletely sealed is formed around the piece C. The incomplete region R may extend not only to the seal portion S2 of the preceding bag A1, but also to the seal portion S1 of the succeeding bag A2 connected thereto. When the subsequent bag A2 is carried into the X-ray inspection apparatus in a state separated from the preceding bag A1, the incomplete region R of the subsequent bag A2 does not include the fragment C1, so the X-ray inspection apparatus , It will be judged as a normal product.

  Furthermore, when biting of the fragment C1 is detected in the seal portion S2, there may be a plurality of smaller fragments around it, but such minute fragments are also detected by the X-ray inspection apparatus. It may not be done. In particular, if minute fragments are bitten at the boundary between the seal portion S1 and the bag portion containing the contents, the packaging material may become thin and the filling gas may leak from the bag portion.

Even in a bag having such an incomplete region R, its sealing performance is inferior, so that the filling gas leaks or tears due to the expansion of the bag due to temperature rise or external pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate not only defective products in which minute fragments that cannot be detected by the X-ray inspection apparatus are caught, but also defective products with incomplete seals. There was a problem that it could not be excluded. In addition, the inspection apparatus using a light beam that passes through an article other than X-rays has the same problem.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new transmitted light inspection apparatus that can reliably remove such defective products from the production line.

  The transmitted light inspection apparatus according to the present invention is a transmitted light inspection apparatus for inspecting a bag-filled product formed by separating a bag filled with contents from a subsequent bag connected thereto, and transports the bag-packed product. A transport conveyor, a light beam irradiating means for irradiating light to the bag-packed product to be transported, a line sensor for detecting the light beam that has passed through the bag-packed product, and a bag based on the light signal output from the line sensor. Detection means for detecting the biting of the contents into the seal portions formed at both ends of the stuffed product, and instructing the downstream sorting device to exclude defective products based on the detection result of the detection means Instructing means, and when the detecting means detects biting of the contents, a judging means for judging whether the lateral seal portion biting the contents is connected to the preceding bag or connected to the succeeding bag. The finger If the determination result is the preceding bag, the means instructs the exclusion of the bag following the exclusion for the preceding bag. If the determination result is the subsequent bag, the means follows the exclusion for the bag. It is characterized by instructing to exclude the bag.

  In this transmitted light inspection apparatus, a bag-packed product discharged from a vertical pillow or horizontal pillow packaging machine is an inspection target. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the inspection apparatus normally conveys the seal portions S <b> 1 and S <b> 2 formed at both ends of the bag in a posture positioned before and after the conveyance direction indicated by the arrow F. The present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. 3, even when the seal portions S <b> 1 and S <b> 2 at both ends of each bag B <b> 1 to B <b> 3 are positioned in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction. In any conveyance posture, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the preceding bag-packed product B1 is followed by the bag-packed product B2 separated therefrom, and then the bag-packed product B2. Subsequent bag-packed products B3 separated from are conveyed in the following order.

  The detecting means detects the biting of the contents into the seal portion based on the light signal detected by irradiating the packaged goods conveyed in this order with light and transmitting through the article. Subsequently, the determination unit determines whether the seal portion that has bitten the contents is connected to the preceding bag or connected to the subsequent bag. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, if the fragment C is bitten into the front seal portion S1 of the center bag-packed product B2, the preceding bag-packed product B1 is connected to the seal portion S1. Therefore, in this case, the instructing unit instructs the sorting device to exclude the bag-packed product B2 following the exclusion of the preceding bag-packed product B1.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, if the fragment C is bitten in the seal part S2 on the rear side of the center bag-filled product B2, the following bag is connected to the seal part S2. Since it is the seal portion S1 of the stuffed product B3, in this case, the instruction unit instructs the sorting device to exclude the subsequent bagged product B3 following the evacuation of the bag stuffed product B2.

As described above, when the fragment C is caught in the seal portion S1 (S2) of the bag-packed product B2, the seal portions S2 and S1 of the front and rear bags B1 (B3) connected thereto are not sealed. A completely incomplete region R may be formed. Not only that, the presence of minute fragments that are not detected is also considered around the fragment C, and there is a possibility that such minute fragments are also caught in the adjacent seal portions S2 and S1.
Therefore, in the present invention, in order to eliminate such defective products, not only bitten bagged products but also bagged products connected thereto are excluded as defective products.

  Such exclusion was also seen in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1 in which a proximity sensor is mounted on a packaging machine, but the proximity sensor can hardly be detected when the bitten is flattened. If there is a difference between the light transmission amount of the seal portion, it can be detected. In addition, when biting occurs, the influence does not stop at the seal portion but extends to the adjacent seal portion. In addition, there are minute debris that cannot be detected around the bitten object, and it is estimated that they are bitten by the adjacent seal part. The risk of going around is reduced as much as possible.

  Further, in the present invention, even if the inspection result for the preceding bag-packed product is normal, if biting is detected in the subsequent bag-packed product, the previous bag-packed product that has been inspected is later defective. Must be eliminated as. Therefore, in the present invention, it is set so that the bite inspection for the next bag-filled product is completed before the preceding bag-filled product is sorted by the sorting device. Specifically, from the end of the inspection until the sorting device is reached so that the inspection for the next bagging product is completed by the time the packed product for which the bite inspection has been completed reaches the sorting device on the downstream side. The travel distance and transport speed of bag-packed products are set. However, since the packed products are not always transported at regular intervals, in order to ensure the sorting, the sorting device is not disposed immediately after the transmitted light inspection device, but the transmitted light is transmitted to the sorting device. It is preferable to arrange it on the downstream side considerably away from the inspection device.

  According to the present invention, even a defective seal that is incompletely sealed or a defective product that is caught by a minute object that cannot be detected by the transmitted light inspection apparatus is reliably eliminated by the transmitted light inspection apparatus. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the shipment of defective products that could not be avoided with the conventional transmitted light inspection apparatuses.

Explanatory drawing of the imperfect area | region R of a seal | sticker spreading also in horizontal seal part S2 of succeeding bag A2, when biting generate | occur | produces in horizontal seal part S1 of bag A1, A2 connected before and behind. The figure explaining which bag of the front and back bags B1 and B3 should be excluded when biting occurs in the lateral seal portion S1 of the bag B2 conveyed in the lateral orientation. The figure explaining which bag of the front and back bags B1 and B3 should be excluded when biting occurs in the lateral seal portion S2 of the bag B2 conveyed in the vertical orientation. The figure explaining which bag of the front and back bags B1 and B3 should be excluded when biting occurs in the lateral seal portion S2 of the bag B2 conveyed in the lateral orientation. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an X-ray inspection apparatus according to the present invention. The configuration block diagram of the embodiment. An example of an X-ray image obtained by developing an X-ray transmission signal in two dimensions.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of an X-ray inspection apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration diagram when the X-ray inspection apparatus according to the present invention is incorporated in an inspection line for bagged products. In this figure, a conveyor 20 is connected to the entrance side of the X-ray inspection apparatus 100, and a sorting apparatus 30 is connected to the exit side. Then, the packaged product B conveyed from a packaging machine (not shown) is carried into the X-ray inspection apparatus 100 via the conveyor 20, and the one determined as defective is then out of the line by the downstream sorting apparatus 30. The other packaged goods B are discharged to the downstream packing line through the sorting device 30.

  A packaging machine (not shown) is a vertical pillow type packaging machine in which a horizontal sealing machine horizontally seals an upper end portion of a preceding bag and a lower end portion of a subsequent bag with a tube-shaped bag interposed therebetween. Therefore, in the embodiment of FIG. 5, the bags B to be transported are carried into the X-ray inspection apparatus 100 in the lateral orientation shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 and arranged side by side.

  The X-ray inspection apparatus 100 mainly emits X-rays to a shield box 10 that shields X-rays, a transport conveyor 11 that is spanned between the entrances and exits of the seal box 10, and a packaged product B that is transported. Means 12, a line sensor 13 for detecting irradiated X-rays, a touch panel 14 for operating and setting operation conditions and inspection conditions by operating an operation screen, and a control computer 15 for controlling these (see FIG. 6) And support legs 16 that support the entire shield box 10.

  In the shield box 10, there is provided an irradiation chamber for irradiating the packaged product B to be transported with X-rays, and an X-ray irradiation means 12 is disposed above the irradiation chamber. A conveyor 11 is arranged. Between the upper and lower belts of the conveyor 11, a line sensor 13 for detecting X-rays transmitted through the bag-packed product B and the belt is disposed in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction indicated by the arrow F. A touch panel 14 is provided on the upper front surface of the shield box 10.

  The conveyor 11 is a belt conveyor that extends between the entrance and the exit of the shield box 10 and is set so as to convey the bag-packed product B at a speed set in the inspection line. Further, the entrance and the exit are respectively provided with shield warming (not shown) for preventing X-ray leakage.

  The X-ray irradiation means 12 is an X-ray generator having a well-known configuration, and X-rays irradiated from an X-ray tube (not shown) housed in the shield box 10 are conveyed in the direction in which the packaged product B is conveyed by a collimator (not shown). Then, it is narrowed down to a fan-shaped beam that spreads in the direction perpendicular to the beam and irradiated toward the conveyor 11. The irradiated X-rays pass through the bag-filled product B and the belt of the conveyor 11 and are input to the line sensor 13.

  The line sensor 13 includes a plurality of photodiodes arranged in a straight line in a direction perpendicular to the carrying direction of the packaged product B, and a plurality of scintillators provided thereon. The X-rays that have passed through the packaged product B are converted into light by each scintillator, and the light is converted into an electrical signal by each photodiode and output as an X-ray transmission signal. The X-ray transmission signal output in this way is converted into a digital quantity by an A / D converter (not shown) and input to the control computer 15.

  FIG. 6 shows a configuration block diagram of the X-ray inspection apparatus 100. In this figure, the control computer 15 includes a CPU 1, a ROM 2, a RAM 3, and an HDD (hard disk) 4. The CPU 1 is connected to the ROM 2, RAM 3 and HDD 4 via an address bus and a data bus. The control computer 15 is connected to the conveyor 11, X-ray irradiation means 12, line sensor 13, and touch panel 14, and is also connected to the sorting device 30 to control them.

  The HDD 4 stores an inspection program including an image generation module, a contour extraction module, a lateral seal area identification module, a bite detection module, a sorting instruction module, a defective product determination module, a foreign matter inspection module, and the like. Then, the CPU 1 reads out and executes these inspection programs from the HDD 4 so that each function described later is realized.

  The touch panel 15 is composed of a full-dot liquid crystal display, and by operating a setting screen displayed on the touch panel 15, the X-ray inspection apparatus 100 can be started and stopped, and necessary operating conditions and inspection conditions can be set. It has become. For example, on the initial screen before the start of operation, it is possible to set operation conditions such as the transport speed of the transport conveyor 11 and the X-ray intensity of the X-ray irradiation means 12, and on the reservation screen after the start of operation, for example, a two-dimensional image is displayed. The detection sensitivity at the time of processing, the bag size for specifying the lateral seal region, the size of the seal portion, and the like can be set.

  The image processing means 5 is a function realized by executing the image generation module, the contour extraction module, and the horizontal seal area specifying module. When the image generation module is executed, a two-dimensional X-ray image as shown in FIG. 7 is generated based on the input X-ray transmission signal. Subsequently, the contour extraction module is executed to extract the contour of the bag b. Next, the horizontal seal area specifying module is executed, and the upper and lower horizontal seal areas S10 and S20 formed at both ends of the bag b are specified from preset dimension information of the horizontal seal portion.

  The detecting means 6 inspects the presence or absence of biting in the areas S10 and S20, that is, the presence or absence of fragments of the contents, by executing the biting detection module for the lateral seal areas S10 and S20 thus identified. . Specifically, the image data of the horizontal seal areas S10 and S20 is binarized with a preset threshold value, and an image of only fragments is extracted. Generally, since the content pieces have a lower X-ray transmission amount than the material of the bag b, an abbreviation between the X-ray transmission amount of the material of the bag b and the X-ray transmission amount of the content pieces from the touch panel 14. If a threshold value is set in the vicinity of the intermediate level, a portion having an X-ray transmission amount lower than the threshold value is extracted as a fragment of the content.

  When the determination means 7 detects the biting into the lateral seal area in this way, the defective section determination module is executed, and the horizontal seal portions S1 and S2 biting the pieces of contents are connected to the preceding bag. Then, it is determined whether it is connected to the subsequent bag. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, if the fragment C is bitten in the front side seal portion S1 of the center bag-filled product B2, in the X-ray image of FIG. 7, there is a fragment in the upper side seal region S10. In this case, it is determined that it is the preceding bag-packed product B that is connected to the horizontal seal region S10. Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, assuming that the fragment C is caught in the lateral seal portion S2 on the rear side of the center bag-filled product B2, in FIG. 7, the fragment is entered in the lower lateral seal region S20. Therefore, in this case, it is determined that it is the succeeding bag-packed product B3 that is connected to the horizontal seal region S20.

  Upon receiving the determination result of the determination unit 6, the instruction unit 8 executes the distribution instruction module. If the determination result is the preceding bag b, the bagging is performed following the exclusion of the preceding bagging product B. The distribution unit 30 is instructed to exclude the product B. In the case of the succeeding bag b, the sorting apparatus 30 is instructed to exclude the succeeding bag-packed product B following the removal of the bag-packed product B. For example, in FIG. 2, when an instruction to exclude the center bag-packed product B2 and the preceding bag-packed product B1 is instructed, first, an exclusion signal E for the bag-packed product B1 is transmitted to the sorting device 30; An exclusion signal E for the packaged product B2 is transmitted.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the sorting device 30 includes a conveyor 31 that transports the bag-packed product B, a sorting arm 32 that excludes the bag-packed product B being transported out of the line, a conveyor 31, and a sorting arm 32. And a sensor 34 that detects the packaged product B and sends a detection signal to the control unit 33. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, when an instruction to exclude the preceding bag-packed product B1 and the subsequent bag-packed product B2 is instructed, the control unit 33 detects the preceding bag-packed product B1 at the timing. The sorting arm 34 is driven to move to the sorting position. As a result, the transported bag-filled product B1 hits the sorting arm 34 and is discharged out of the line, and the subsequent bag-packed product B2 hits the sorting arm 34 and is discharged out of the line.

  On the other hand, when the sensor 34 detects the bag-packed product B2, the control unit 33 starts the timer from that point, and when the time is up, the control unit 33 determines that the bag-packed product B2 to be sorted last is discharged, and sets the sorting arm 32 to the initial position. Return to.

  In this embodiment, the arm-type sorting device 30 is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and depending on the characteristics of the bag-packed product, a sorting device such as a drop belt type, an air jet type, or a pusher type is used. Can also be used.

  Next, the operation of the inspection system 100 according to this embodiment will be described.

  First, the conveyance speed of the X-ray inspection apparatus 100 and the sorting apparatus 30 is set according to the conveyance speed of the inspection line, and then the minimum interval between the back and forth bag-packed products B is also set. At that time, the inspection time required for one inspection object is determined by the processing capacity of the computer, the distance between the X-ray inspection apparatus 100 and the sorting apparatus 30 is known, and the distance between the back and forth bag-packed products B is also known. Therefore, if the inspection time for the bag-packed product B takes longer than the time until the preceding bag-packed product B that has been inspected reaches the detection position of the sensor 34, a warning is displayed on the touch panel 14. To guide the user to lower the transport speed. When this is not possible, the sorting apparatus 30 is disposed at a position slightly away from the X-ray inspection apparatus 100.

When the operation is started after such initial setting, each bag-packed product B is typically carried into the X-ray inspection apparatus 100 in the horizontal orientation and order as shown in FIG.
On the other hand, the line sensor 13 always outputs an X-ray transmission signal, and the digital signal corresponding to the X-ray transmission signal is constantly stored in the buffer memory. It is determined that the product B has reached the detection position of the line sensor 13, and the accumulated X-ray transmission signal is developed into a two-dimensional X-ray image.

  Subsequently, the image processing means 5 extracts the outline of the bag b as shown in FIG. 7 from the two-dimensionally developed X-ray image, and then from the preset dimension information of the horizontal seal portions S1 and S2. The lateral seal regions S10 and S20 are specified.

  When the lateral seal areas S10 and S20 are specified in this way, the detection means 6 is then operated to check for the presence or absence of biting in those areas S10 and S20. When biting into the lateral seal region S10 is detected, the determination means 7 determines that the bag b and the preceding bag b inspected earlier are also defective. Further, when the biting into the lateral seal region S20 is detected, the determination unit 7 determines that the bag b and the subsequent bag b following it are also defective. Further, when biting is detected in both the lateral seal regions S10 and S20, the determination means 7 determines that the bag b and both bags b before and after it are also defective.

  When the defective product is determined in this way, the instruction unit 8 instructs the sorting device 30 to sort the defective product. The sorting device 30 drives the sorting arm 32 to discharge the defective product out of the line every time a defective product is detected by the sensor 34 based on the sorting instruction. However, when defective products move back and forth, the sorting arm 32 sequentially discharges the defective products while being held at the sorting position.

<Modification 1>
In the above embodiment, if there is a defective product, a sorting signal is sent to the sorting device, but instead, a sorting device is set so that a non-defective product or defective product is always distributed. Only in this case, it may be set to transmit a negative signal that is not distributed. As a result, shipment of defective products due to transmission errors can be prevented.

<Modification 2>
In the above embodiment, an X-ray inspection apparatus is used as the inspection apparatus. However, an inspection apparatus that irradiates near-infrared rays onto a packaged product and inspects biting of contents into the seal portion can also be used. What is necessary is just to test | inspect with the light ray which irradiates and permeate | transmits a bag goods.

<Modification 3>
In the above embodiment, an X-ray inspection apparatus is used as the inspection apparatus. For example, a proximity sensor described in Patent Document 1 that detects the biting of contents into the seal portion can also be used.

<Modification 4>
Further, although the sorting device of the above embodiment is an arm type, other types of sorting devices such as a drop belt type, an air jet type, and a pusher type can be used.

6 Detection means 7 Determination means 8 Instruction means 11 Conveyor 12 X-ray irradiation means 13 Line sensor 14 Touch panel 30 Sorting device 100 X-ray inspection device B Bag-filled product b Bag

Claims (1)

A transmitted light inspection device for inspecting a bag-filled product formed by separating a bag filled with contents from a subsequent bag connected to the bag,
A transport conveyor for transporting the bag-packed goods;
A light beam irradiation means for irradiating the packaged product to be transported with a light beam;
A line sensor for detecting light transmitted through the bag-packed product;
Based on the light signal output from the line sensor, detecting means for detecting biting of the contents into the seal portions formed at both ends of the bag-packed product;
Based on the detection result of the detection means, instruction means for instructing the downstream sorting device to eliminate defective products,
When the detection means detects the biting of the contents, it comprises a determination means for determining whether the lateral seal portion biting the contents is connected to the preceding bag or connected to the subsequent bag,
If the determination result is the preceding bag, the instructing means instructs the exclusion of the bag following the exclusion for the preceding bag. If the determination result is the subsequent bag, the instruction means follows the exclusion for the bag. A transmitted light inspection apparatus characterized by instructing to remove a subsequent bag.