JPS61278740A - Bottle inspecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the space of a reader for a code showing a bottle forming place marked on the bottom of a bottle smaller and to read properly the code by disposing an image pickup means in the inside of a ring-like light source arranged at the backward position of a bottle supporting surface. CONSTITUTION:A bottle forming device forms simultaneously plural bottles 50 with plural molds. At the time of formation, plural projections 3 are protrusively made in one body on the bottom of the bottle, and disposed and formed in a circle to form the code showing its mold. When a bottle testing action is started, the bottles 50 are sequentially transported to a test station through a bottle transportation path, after which uniform light beams are uniformly irradiated from the ring-like light source 20 through a spread plate 27 on the bottom of the still bottle 50. The light beam projected on the projections 3 on the bottom of the bottle are reflected, and only the projections 3 light brightly, whereas other parts become dark. A television camera 22 image-picks up the brightness distribution of the bottom of the bottle, and correspondences to the mold numbers discriminated with the aid of the code and the defective part of the bottle are aggregated.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Technical Field of the Invention> The present invention relates to a bottle inspection device for inspecting defects in bottles formed by a bottle molding machine. The present invention relates to a device that reads a code representing a bottle molding location and determines the molding location (specifically, the molding die) of a defective bottle.

<Background of the Invention> A bottle molding machine is generally equipped with a large number of molds, and these molds are used to simultaneously mold a large number of bottles. After the molded bottles are cooled, they are inspected for various defects using a bottle inspection device, but in order to investigate the cause of defects in bottles, it is necessary to know which mold was used to mold them. Conventionally, a series of investigations of this type have been carried out entirely manually, which has led to the problem of extremely low work efficiency.

Therefore, in recent years, during bottle molding, a code indicating the molding die is formed on the bottom of the bottle with a protrusion, etc., and when a defective bottle occurs, by reading the code attached to the bottle, it is possible to identify the mold that caused the defective bottle. A method to identify the type was proposed. When implementing this method, for example, shine light from the mouth of the bottle,
The above-mentioned code is read from the bottom of the bottle while the bottle is rotating or stopped, but in this type of structure, a light projecting part is provided above the bottle and a reading part is provided below the bottle, so this is required for inspection. If the code reading section is placed in a section, there are problems such as not only the entire inspection section becomes large but also the space occupied by the code reading section in the inspection section becomes extremely large.

<Object of the invention> This invention is intended to solve the above problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a bottle inspection device in which the space of a code reading section is reduced to the minimum necessary limit.

<Configuration and Effects of the Invention> In order to achieve the above object, the bottle inspection device of the present invention has the following features:
A bottle transport path is provided to sequentially transport bottles with numbers 71 indicating the bottle forming location on the bottom of the bottle, and an inspection section for inspecting the bottles for defects is provided along this bottle transport path. This system is equipped with a code reading device that reads the code and determines the molding location on defective bottles. Inside this light source, an imaging means for imaging the bottom of the bottle is disposed facing the bottom of the bottle, and a code discriminating means for inputting an image of the bottom of the bottle and reading and discriminating the code is provided to the imaging means. I decided to connect.

According to the present invention, when a defective bottle occurs, the code reading unit can easily identify the mold that caused the defective bottle, and work efficiency such as finding the cause can be improved.

Moreover, since the components of the code reader are gathered below the bottle support surface and the space above the support surface is freed, the space occupied by the code reader can be set small, and this space can be effectively used for bottle inspection. A suitable bottle inspection machine can be installed.

In addition, since a ring-shaped light source is used as the light source, it is possible to project light uniformly onto the bottom of the bottle, thereby obtaining a proper image.
The present invention achieves remarkable effects such as being able to read codes accurately, achieving the purpose of the invention.

<Description of Examples> FIG. 1 shows an example of the overall configuration of a bottle inspection bag Wl according to the present invention.

The illustrated bottle inspection device 1 is provided in the middle of a bottle conveyance path 2, and upstream of this bottle conveyance path 2, a bottle forming machine (not shown) is installed.
is located. The bottle molding machine uses a large number of molds to simultaneously mold a large number of bottles 5o. During bottle molding, a code indicating the molding mold is formed on the bottom of the bottle, and by reading the code, defective bottles can be identified. It is now possible to determine which mold was used to mold the product.

The code is a multi-bit binary code, and is formed by integrally protruding a plurality of projections 3 on the bottom of the bottle and arranging them in a circle at a predetermined radius position r, as shown in FIG. . In the case of the illustrated example, the circumference is divided into 16 equal parts, and the positions indicated by ■ to ■ in the figure are code configuration bits, the position of ■ is the parity bit, the position W of a to d is the start bit, S, ... The position of s3 is assigned to each reference bit.

The code configuration bits from ■ to ■ correspond to "1" for the presence of protrusions and "0" for no protrusions, so these 8 bits allow a total of 256 types of codes to be set according to the mold number. ing.

The parity bit (2) is used to determine whether the code is correct or not, so that the sum of the "1" bits of (2) to (2) is an even number. The start bits a to d are always "0", and the reference bits 81 to S3 are always "]", and these are used to detect the reading start position.

Although each protrusion 3 in this embodiment is long in the radial direction and has a mountain-shaped cross section (see FIG. 3), the present invention is not limited to this.
It may also be formed in other shapes (for example, hemispherical). In addition, in the case of the illustrated example, the inclination angle of the protrusion 3 indicated by θ in FIG.
It is configured such that the light from below is effectively reflected downward and also effectively transmitted upward.
This makes it possible to simultaneously read the code on the bottle bottom at the lower position and inspect the bottle bottom at the upper position (for example, an inspection to detect spots, bubbles, and foreign matter on the bottle bottom).

The bottle inspection device 1 includes a feed mechanism 6 that intermittently rotates a star wheel 5 having a plurality of concave portions 4 on its surface, and a bottle inspection device provided at each stopping position of the concave portions 4 (hereinafter referred to as an “inspection station”). It consists of a machine (not shown),
On the upstream side of the feeding mechanism 6, there is provided a feeding mechanism 8 having a screw mechanism 7 for feeding tI50 into each recess 4, and on the downstream side of the feeding mechanism 6, a feeding mechanism 8 is provided for collecting defective bottles. 9 are arranged.

In the illustrated example, there are five inspection stations indicated by A-E in the figure, and four of these inspection stations A-D are equipped with a bottle rotation mechanism 10 to inspect the bottle 50 in a rotating state. However, at the last inspection station E, the bottle 50 is inspected in a stationary state. Each bottle rotation mechanism 10 presses a rotating roller 11 against the circumferential surface of a bottle 50 located at an inspection station to rotate the bottle by the frictional force. Between each inspection station, the bottle is moved to the next inspection station. A guide plate 12 is provided to guide the user.

The final inspection station E is equipped with a code reading device 13 for reading the code on the bottom of the bottle. As shown in FIG. 4, this code reading device 13 is disposed below a support plate 14 that supports the bottom of the bottle 50, and in the empty space above the support plate 14, for example, the height of the bottle, the height of the bottle, An inspection machine 15 is installed to inspect the caliber, smoothness of the bottle mouth, defects in the bottom of the bottle, etc., in order to make effective use of space.

The support plate 14 has a structure in which a resin plate 17 is stacked on a metal substrate 16, and the metal substrate 16 has a notch 18 corresponding to the belly position, and the resin plate 17 has a taper opening downward. Holes 19 are provided respectively.

The code reading bag W13 includes a ring-shaped light source 20 for projecting light onto the bottom of the bottle to effectively illuminate only the protrusion 3, and this light source 2.
A case 21 for storing 0, a television camera 22 for taking an image of the bottle bottom, which is placed inside the case 21 facing toward the bottom of the bottle, and the image obtained by this television camera 22 is input to read the code. It is composed of a code discrimination circuit 23 for discrimination.

The ring-shaped light source 20 includes two ring-shaped fluorescent lamps 24.
25 are arranged vertically in parallel, and the electrode portions of the fluorescent lamps that do not emit light are positioned diagonally to prevent uneven light projection onto the bottom of the bottle. The case 21 that houses these fluorescent lamps 24 and 25 is a housing 2.
6 and a diffuser plate 27 that covers the inside and upper side of the light source 20, and a transparent resin plate 28 is placed on the upper surface of this diffuser plate 27.
is in place.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of the code discrimination circuit 23. In the figure, a television camera 22 images the bottom of the bottle, converts it into an image, and stores this image in an image memory 29. As shown in FIG. 6, the illustrated image memory 29 has a large number of pixels of 256 bits each in the vertical and horizontal directions, and each pixel stores pixel data having a brightness level corresponding to the image. Image memo IJ2
A monitor television 30 and a code reading circuit 31 are connected to 9, and the image memory 29 is connected to the monitor television 30.
The stored images can be visually confirmed.

The code reading circuit 31 reads each pixel data of the image stored in the image memory 29, performs processing such as binarization, and then reads the code data. This code reading circuit 31 is a CPU of a personal computer 32.
(Central Processing Unit)
33, and the CPU 33 executes various processes while controlling the operation of the code reading circuit 31 based on the program in the memory 34, and also controls a series of operations from code reading to discrimination. It is.

FIG. 7 shows a specific circuit configuration of the code reading circuit 31. The code reading circuit 31 in the illustrated example has a circle for reading the code on the image memory 29 (broken lines R, , R,
), and a circuit unit 31A for sequentially specifying the XY coordinates of pixels located on this circle, and binarizing the pixel data read from the specified coordinate position on the image memory 29. Circuit section 31 for processing and reading codes
B, and each circuit section 31A.

31B are each connected to the image memory 29 via an interface 35.

The circuit unit 31A has a function of setting multiple types of circles with different diameters and center points on the image memory 29, and uses XY coordinate data (in this embodiment, one A pair of ROMs (Read Only) that store 360 coordinate data per day information
Memory) 36.

37, a preset counter 38 that sequentially counts the addresses of each ROM 36 and 37 and outputs XY coordinate data, and an adder 39 that moves the center point of the circle by a predetermined coordinate.
40.

FIG. 8 shows n types of day information F, ~F, having different diameters stored in each of the ROMs 36 and 37. When any of these day information is specified using the keyboard of the personal computer 32, the preset counter 38, the start address of the day's information is preset.

FIG. 9 shows that when reading the code, the center point of the circle is
Number 1.2.3. . . . (details will be described later), and this order and movement coordinate distance are automatically set by the personal computer 38.

The circuit section 31B includes a latch circuit 41 for holding pixel data read out from the image memory 29, and a comparator for comparing each latched pixel data with a predetermined threshold value and converting it into a binary value. 42, a gate signal generation circuit 43 that forms 16 gate signals necessary for extracting a 16-bit code, and a binarized output from the comparator 42 using the gate signal provided from the gate signal generation circuit 43. a code determination circuit 44 that reads, determines and extracts the code; and a shift register 4 that holds 16 bits of the output of the code determination circuit 44 and outputs it to the microphone o-computer 32.
5.

FIG. 10 is a diagram continuously showing pixel data on a circle read out from the image memory 29, where the horizontal axis shows the angle and the vertical axis shows the brightness level.

In the figure, parts with high brightness levels correspond to protruding parts on the bottom of the bottle, and by comparing this pixel data with a predetermined threshold value TH in the comparator 42, a code as shown in FIG. 11 is obtained. Obtain the pulse signal that makes up the .

The gate signal generation circuit 43 includes an edge detection circuit 46 that detects the edge portion e of the first pulse signal shown in FIG.
and the gate width corresponding to an angle of 22 degrees (360 degrees is 16
When divided into equal parts, it becomes 22.5 degrees, and the width of one gate is 22.
The first gate generates a gate signal G, (where i is an odd number) with a gate width of 23 degrees and a gate width corresponding to an angle of 23 degrees.
(where j is an even number), and a gate distribution circuit 49 that alternately supplies each gate signal to the sign determination circuit 44. , the distribution starts operating after a predetermined time has elapsed.

Thus, the sign determination circuit 44 detects the logic “1” from the comparator 42.
The sign is determined based on whether or not a specified number of signals exist in the gate, and as a result, 16-bit data is output bit serially, and this data is once stored in the shift register 45 and then , and are taken into the microcomputer 32.

FIG. 12 shows the code reading of this microcomputer 32.
FIG. 13 shows the initial setting operation of step l (indicated by r and T I J in the figure) in FIG. 12.

Prior to the bottle inspection, when an initialization button provided at a suitable location of the device is turned on, a predetermined lamp lights up to notify the start of the initialization process (Step Lot, 102). Next, the image of the bottle bottom (for example, the image of the model for initialization) stored in the image memory 29 by the television camera 22 is captured and displayed on the monitor television 30 (step 1
03), and in the next step 104, when any date information is selected and the radius of the circle is input and specified, C
As shown in FIG. 6, the PU 33 draws a circle (for example, RI) on the image memory 29 with its center point P as the center, and this circle is displayed on the monitor television 30 together with the image (step 105). The images in the image memory 29 are taken into the monitor television 30 at fixed intervals (for example, 1 second) and the screen display is updated.
If the center of 0 is shifted and the circular array image of the protrusions 3 is misaligned with respect to the circle R3, the position of the television camera 22 is moved while looking at this screen to make adjustments.

When the above-mentioned adjustments on the screen are completed and the initial setting button is turned off, the answer to step 106 becomes "YES", the above button disappears, and the machine waits for the start of the examination.

(When the bottle inspection operation is started and the bottles 50 are sent from the bottle transport path 2 to each recess 4 of the star wheel 5, each bottle 50 is sequentially moved to the inspection station A- by the intermittent rotation operation of the feeding mechanism 6. When the bottle 50 reaches the final inspection station and the inspection timing signal is input to the CPU 33, step 2 becomes YES', and the next step 3 is carried out. The code reading device 13 is activated.

Now, when the bottom of the bottle 50 that is stationary at the inspection station E is uniformly irradiated with uniform light from the ring-shaped light source 20 through the diffuser plate 27, the light that hits the protrusion 3 on the bottom of the bottle will be reflected. As a result, only the protrusion 3 shines brightly, and the other parts become dark.

The brightness distribution at the bottom of the bottle is immediately imaged by the television camera 22, the image is stored in the image memory 29, and the code is read by the code reading circuit 31. In this code reading circuit 31, a first circle R (shown in FIG. 6) having a predetermined radius with the first center point (see FIG. 9) as the center of the circle is set, and Reading of pixel data along the line and further reading is performed by hardware.

First, a predetermined preset counter value is given to the preset counter 38, and 360 XY coordinate data for setting the first circle R3 are read out one after another from the corresponding address of each ROM 36.37 as the counter 38 performs a counting operation. It will be done. The outputs of the ROMs 36 and 37 and the center point correction value data from the CPU 33 are input to each of the following adders 39 and 40, and addition processing is performed. In the figure, since point P) is set, each correction value is "zero".

In this way, pixel data is sequentially read out from the corresponding pixels in the image memory 29 based on the XY coordinate data output from each adder 39 and 40 and set in the latch circuit 41.

Next, these pixel data are binarized by a comparator 42 and sent to a sign determination circuit 44. Furthermore, this sign determination circuit 44 is given a gate signal generated by a gate signal generation circuit 43. The code is read. As a result, if the reading is carried out properly, the next step 4 makes a determination of YES, and the 16-bit read data is transferred from the shift register 45 to the CPU 33, and this transferred data is set in the memory 34 (step 5).

If the image of the bottom of the bottle is misaligned with respect to the circle R1 due to distortion of the bottle or misalignment of the bottle, one pulse signal may be detected across two gates, etc. The determination of "Is reading appropriate?" in step 4 is "NO", and the process proceeds to step 11.

Regarding the transfer data in step 5, next the CPU 3
3, first, in step 6, it is determined whether or not there is data corresponding to the start bits at positions a-d in FIG.
It is checked whether data corresponding to the reference bit at the S3 position exists, and whether or not the parity based on the parity bit at the ■ position in FIG. 2 is appropriate in step 8. As a result, if all of steps 6 to 8 are YES, the process advances to step 9, where it is checked whether or not this data reading is the second time.
Since the determination is "mNO", the process proceeds to step 10.

Then, in step 10, a second circle R2 having a different diameter from the first circle R1 is set at the same center point as above,
A second code reading process is executed by the code reading circuit 31 based on the pixel data along the circle R2. That is, in the code reading circuit 31, a preset value different from the previous one is given to the preset counter 38, so that 360 XY coordinate data for setting the second circle R2 are stored in the counter from the corresponding address of each ROM 36.37. 38 counting operations are read out one after another and given to the image memory 29. Thereafter, operations such as reading out pixel data from the image memory 29, disulfuration processing, sign determination, etc. are performed in the same manner as described above. .

On the other hand, if the bottle is distorted or the bottle is misaligned,
In a case where there is a positional shift of the bottle bottom image with respect to the first circle R1, the judgment power of any of steps 5.6 to 8 is < ”
If the answer is "NO", the process proceeds to step 11, where the second center point (see Figure 9) is set.Then, the determination of "Have all center points been set?" in the subsequent step 12 is "NO". Therefore, in step 13, the first
The circle R3 is reset, and the code is read again based on the pixel data along the circle RI. In this case, in the code reading circuit 31, in order to set the second center point, the center point correction value data ΔY is sent from the CPU 33 to the adder 39.
．． 40, and as a result, pixel data is read out on the image memory 29 along a circle having the point P' as the center point in FIG.

As a result of the second code reading process based on the second circle Rz, if the reading is performed properly, the determination in step 4 becomes "YES", and the code is sent from the code reading circuit 31 to the CPU 33. The 16-bit read data is transferred and set in memory 34. Next, the CPU 33 performs the checks in steps 6 to 8, and if all of the results in steps 6 to 8 are "YES", the CPU 33 further performs the checks in step 9.
will be checked. In this case, the determination of "Is this the second reading?" in step 9 is also "YES", so the process proceeds to step 14, where it is determined whether the first read data and the second read data match. be done. As a result, when the determination in step 14 is ``YES'', the read data is determined to be appropriate, and the CPU 33 reads the code using the position of the start bit as a clue, and uses the reading result to, for example, output to the inspection equipment controller).

On the other hand, if the determination in any of steps 4.6 to 8 and 14 is "NO", the next center point is set in step 11, and the same process is repeated.

In the example of FIG. 9, if proper data is not obtained even after setting the center point 57 times, the determination in step 12 will be "YES" and error processing will be performed in step 16. .

By reading the above code, it is possible to know the mold number of the bottle molding machine that molded the winter clothes 50, and if the correspondence between the defective parts of the bottles and the mold numbers is automatically tallied, the defective parts can be traced. and its corrections can be made quickly and appropriately.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing an example of the overall configuration of the bottle inspection device, Fig. 2 is an explanatory drawing showing the symbols attached to the bottom of the bottle, and Fig. 3 is Fig. 2 n.
4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of the configuration of the code reading device, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the code reading device, and FIG. 6 is a storage of the image memory. Figure 7 is a block diagram showing a specific example of the code reading circuit. Figure 8 is a diagram explaining the contents of the ROM in the code reading circuit. Figure 9 is a diagram showing the setting of the center point. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing pixel data read out from the image memory; FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the timing of the code reading operation; FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the control flow of the code reading operation; The figure is a flowchart showing the flow of initialization processing. 1... Bottle inspection device 2... Bottle conveyance path 13... Code reading device 20...-
Ring-shaped light source 22...Television camera 23.
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Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) A bottle transport path is provided to sequentially transport bottles with codes indicating bottle forming locations on the bottle bottoms, and an inspection section is provided along this bottle transport path to inspect the bottles for defects. teeth,
A bottle inspection device equipped with a code reading device that reads the code and determines the molding location of a defective bottle, the code reading device projecting light onto a bottle bottom located below a bottle support surface. a ring-shaped light source, an imaging means for taking an image of the bottle bottom, which is placed inside the light source toward the bottom of the bottle, and a code discriminating means for inputting the image obtained by the imaging means and reading and discriminating the code. A bottle inspection device comprising: (2) The bottle inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the code is a multi-bit binary code, and the binary code is constructed by arranging a plurality of protrusions in a circle on the bottom of the bottle. . (3) The inspection section is composed of a feeding mechanism that supports the bottle in a recess on the circumferential surface of the wheel and rotates the bottle intermittently, and a plurality of types of bottle inspection machines installed corresponding to each stop position of the recess. A bottle inspection device according to claim 1. (4) The bottle according to claim 1, wherein the ring-shaped light source is two ring-shaped fluorescent lamps arranged vertically in parallel, and the electrode portions of each fluorescent lamp are positioned diagonally. Inspection equipment. (5) The bottle inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the bottle transport path is provided with a recovery section for recovering defective bottles at a position downstream of the inspection section.