JPH0472507A - Sack inspecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately sense any sack of poor workmanship in the shape, contained in a bundle of sacks, automatically by paying respect to the fact that sacks are embodied in the identical shape, and sensing eventual abnormality in the plane shape of the bundle of sacks laminated using a judging means. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 10 calculates the similarity of a contour image to be inspected, which is accommodated in a work region, to the regular contour image accommodated in a registered region of a RAM 12, and judges whether the calculated similarity lies within the specified range of allowable error. When the judgement placed is as abnormal, the CPU 10 signals out an alarm message to a display device 14, and the message is indicated on a screen. Thereby any sack with poor workmanship in the shape contained in a bundle of sacks can be sensed automatically through image processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to a bag inspection device for detecting abnormally shaped bags in a bundle of bags being made in a bag making machine.

[Prior Art 1] Conventionally, when manufacturing bags such as shopping bags, a synthetic resin film or tube is usually cut into predetermined lengths one after another, and the front and rear portions of the cut portions ( Both sides are welded together to produce a single bag.Next, a predetermined number of bags are stacked, and the bundle of bags is conveyed all at once to a cutting process to form a handle part, etc. There is (
Special Publication No. 1-44145, Utility Model Publication No. 59-33634
(see publication).

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, if a bag with an abnormal shape is mixed into a bundle of bags to be transported to such a bag processing process,
In the next process of cutting out the handle portion, etc., a bag with a defective shape may be processed, or the shape of the handle portion of another bag may be changed.

In order to prevent this kind of situation, the shape of the bags to be made during transportation was checked by humans, but the human eye cannot detect defects in the thin dimensions of the bags, and There was a problem in that it was extremely difficult to inspect each bag that had been made into plastic bags one by one.

Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned points, an object of the present invention is to provide a bag inspection device that can automatically detect bags with poor shape from a bundle of laminated bags with high accuracy. shall be.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a storage means for storing shape information in advance indicating the allowable range of the normal shape of the bag, and a , an imaging means for imaging the plane of the bundle of stacked bags, and whether or not the shape of the bag indicated by the imaging result of the imaging means is within the allowable range of normal shape.
a determining means for making a determination based on the shape information of the self-memory means; and when the determination result of the determining means is a negative determination, the bundle of bags to be inspected includes a bag with a defective shape; The present invention is characterized by comprising a signal output means for outputting a warning signal indicating that.

[Function 1] The present invention focuses on the fact that the bags to be stacked have the same shape, and detects an abnormality in the planar shape of the bundle of stacked bags by using a determination means. Detects contained bags with poor shape.

[Embodiment 1] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a storage means that stores shape information indicating the allowable range of the normal shape of the bag in advance.

Reference numeral 200 denotes an imaging means for imaging a plane of a bundle of laminated bags to be inspected.

Denoted at 300 is a determination means for determining whether the shape of the bag indicated by the image taken by the image pickup means is within a normal shape tolerance based on the shape information in the storage means.

400, when the determination result of the determination means is a negative determination,
The signal output means outputs a warning signal indicating that the bundle of bags to be inspected includes a bag with a defective shape.

FIG. 2 shows a specific circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, a central processing unit (CPU) 10° read-only memory 11. Random access memory (R
AM)12. A keyboard input box 131 and display device 14 are connected to the common bus.

The cpuio not only controls the operation of the entire inspection device, but also extracts the contour image of the bag from the captured image and performs a matching comparison process with the contour image of a normal bag.

The ROMII stores in advance a control procedure for bag inspection processing executed by the CPU]O.

The RAM 12 is divided into a work area and a registration area. Input/output information for CPU10 is temporarily stored in the work area. In the registration area, information used for inspecting the bag, for example, a contour image extracted from the imaging result of a bag with a normal shape and allowable error information of the bag to be inspected are stored as shape information of the present invention.

The display device 14 is used to display an alarm when an abnormality in the bag is detected.

The above-mentioned allowable error information is input from the keyboard input device 13.

The input/output device ffi (Ilo) 15 transfers one screen worth of image information captured by the simulator 20 when the bag group to be inspected reaches the imaging position to the CPU10.

In addition, well-known equipment such as a limit switch, a circuit for calculating the amount of movement of the conveyance means, a photo sensor, etc. may be used to detect the arrival of the bundle of bags during conveyance at the imaging position.

The imaging device 20 of this embodiment uses an image sensor that performs photoelectric conversion using a CCO (solid-state imaging device). The imaging device is also provided with an optical system for forming a subject image on an image sensor depending on the size of the bag.

The bag inspection procedure in this circuit configuration is described in the third section.
This will be explained using the flowchart shown in the figure.

The control procedure shown in FIG. 3 is a control procedure executed by CPU10, and is stored in the ROMII in advance in the form of a program language.

1) Registration of images of normal bags Prior to inspection, a bag with a normal shape or a bundle of bags is transported. Further, the user inputs an instruction for the image registration mode using the keyboard input device 13.

When this bag is located near the imaging position, Ilo 15 sends an interrupt request signal to C in response to the position detection signal of the detection unit on the surface.
Send to PU10.

By inputting this interrupt request signal, CPU10
The control procedure shown in the figure is started.

That is, in FIG. 3, CPU10 is Ilo15
receives the binary image signal for one screen output from the imaging device 20 via the , and stores it in the work area of the RAM 12 (
Step 5100).

Next, a contour image of the bag is extracted based on the image information in the RAM 12 (step 5LIO). As this processing procedure, various processing procedures other than a processing procedure called a tracking method are known, and a detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

Since the registration mode is currently being instructed, the CPU 10 advances the procedure to steps 5120→5130 and accepts input of allowable error information from the keyboard input device 13.

Next, the image information of the extracted contour is transferred from the work area of the RAM 12 to the registration area, and the input tolerance information is stored in the registration area of the RAM 12 to complete the registration of the regular bag shape information. .

2) The bag inspection operator inputs an instruction for the inspection mode from the keyboard input device 13. When the bag to be inspected is located at the imaging position, the control procedure shown in FIG. 3 is executed in the CPU 10 as described above.

That is, a contour image is extracted from the captured image information for one screen (step 3100→5ilo). At this time, since the inspection mode is instructed, the execution procedure proceeds from step 5120 to step 5200.

Next, CPUl0 calculates the degree of similarity between the regular contour image stored in the registration area of RAMl0 and the contour image to be inspected stored in the work area, and calculates the degree of similarity within the specified tolerance. Determine whether it is within the range (
Steps 5200→5210). In this example, a boundary line pattern specified by the tolerance is created outside and inside the regular image pattern, and when the contour image to be inspected is included in the area surrounded by the outside and inside boundaries, the inspection The planar shape of the bundle of target bags is determined to be normal, and other cases are determined to be abnormal. At this time, CPU10 operates as a determining means of the present invention.

When an abnormality is determined, CPU10 operates as a display device and as a signal output means of the present invention.

Thereafter, the above inspection process is repeatedly executed every time the next bundle of bags to be inspected is located at the imaging position.

As explained above, in this embodiment, the planar shape of a bundle of bags to be inspected is compared with a regular image pattern in the form of an image pattern, which makes it possible to perform automatic bag inspection processing. Inspection accuracy also improves.

In addition to this embodiment, the following examples are given.

1) In this embodiment, an alarm is displayed when the presence of an abnormally shaped bag is detected, but in addition, an ejection device (actuator) for a bundle of bags is installed at a predetermined position to detect the above abnormality. The bundle of abnormal bags may be removed by activating a discharge device.

2) The material of the sheet or tube that is the raw material for the bag is:
Any material used for the bag may be used, such as paper, cloth, leather, synthetic resin, etc., but synthetic resin material is preferred.

Synthetic resin materials include branched low-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, polypropylene, other copolymers with ethylene, nylon, polyester, polystyrene, and materials used for their base bags. It is preferable to use synthetic resin material.

Furthermore, these synthetic resin materials may be one type or a blend of two or more types of synthetic resins. Also, two or more types of multilayer materials may be used.

Furthermore, as a sealing method for laminating the bags, any method that can be used may be used, such as adhesive, heat sealing, sewing, etc., as long as it can be sealed. Further, the number of stacked bags may be any number as long as it is 2 or more, but in order to effectively utilize the effects of this device, it is preferable to stack 25 or more bags.

3) In addition to the overall shape of the bag as in this example, the data used to calculate the degree of shape similarity during inspection includes the circumference, area,
Any distance such as the distance of the peripheral portion representing the feature of the shape may be used, and the type and content of the data may be determined according to the inspection accuracy.

The allowable error for a normal bag may be arbitrarily determined depending on the shape of the bag and the processing accuracy of the post-processing process.

To input such tolerance, it is also possible to input it into the inspection device by taking an image of the bag with the shape of the tolerance limit.
When inputting a reference image and inputting a numerical value of an allowable error are used together as in this embodiment, and when mode switching is performed, a wide variety of input processing becomes possible.

Furthermore, if the bag to be inspected has a certain shape, RO
It is also conceivable to register the shape information of the regular bag in the MII.

[Effects of the Invention j As explained above, according to the present invention, a bag with a defective shape included in a bundle of bags can be automatically detected by image processing. It is possible to achieve high precision (also, it is possible to prevent post-processing of bags with poor shapes, contributing to a reduction in manufacturing costs).

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a block diagram showing a specific circuit configuration of an embodiment of the invention, and Figure 3 shows the control procedure executed by the CPU in Figure 2. FIG. IO...CPU, 11...ROM, 12...RAM, 13...keyboard input device, 14...display device, 15...Ilo, 20...imaging device. Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A storage means for storing in advance shape information indicating an allowable range of the normal shape of a bag; an imaging means for photographing a plane of a bundle of laminated bags to be inspected; determining means for determining whether or not the shape of the bag indicated by the imaging result of the imaging means is within a normal shape tolerance based on the shape information of the storage means; and when the determination result of the determining means is a negative determination; The bag inspection apparatus is characterized by comprising: a signal output means for outputting a warning signal indicating that the bundle of bags to be inspected includes a bag with a defective shape.