JPS61288109A - Inspecting method for direction of noncircular glass bottle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect a direction of a glass bottle by discriminating at which quadrant the position of reflected light upward from the first edge of a screw thread of a bottle mouth part by an optical fiber at a position right above the glass bottle is situated. CONSTITUTION:When a light source 5 generates the intermittent light, the rays from each optical fiber 4 of a projector 2 are irradiated in a direction of the position slightly lower than a top panel of the mouth part of the glass bottle 1. As a result, the top of the first edge 8 of the screw thread 7 has a form resembling a spherical surface and shines more strongly than other parts of the screw thread 7 and the first edge 8 can be identified clearly. The reflected light upward is photographed with a camera 9 and at which quadrant quartering the whole screen the position of an image of the reflected light with intensity exceeding the threshold is situated is decided electronically with a deciding device 10. Based on the decision, the position of the first edge of the screw thread 7 and the direction of the glass bottle 1 can be detected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention provides a method for detecting the direction of a non-circular glass bottle such as an elliptical bottle or a stratum corneum that can optically accurately detect the direction of a non-circular glass bottle. This relates to testing methods.

(Prior art) Non-circular glass bottles, such as oval and square glass bottles, which are often used as containers for Western liquors and shochu, have a specific side as the surface for labeling or printing, so they are difficult to clean during printing or packaging. Sometimes it becomes necessary to align them in a certain direction on the conveyor. The general method is to roughly control the direction of the glass bottle using guide rails, etc., and for oval bottles, Oa or 18
0'', O', 90°, 180', 27 for the stratum corneum.
After alignment in either direction of 0', a phototube or the like is used to detect engravings on the body of the glass bottle to inspect the direction of the bottle, and then a device for rotating the bottle is activated.

However, depending on the type of bottle, it may be difficult to detect the characteristics of a specific surface, and in the winter, it is often not possible to accurately determine the direction by detecting only one surface. Therefore, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-35383, we focused on the screw threads on the mouth that are in a certain positional relationship with the bottle body, and rotated the bottle while pressing a thin pin from above the screw threads. A method has been developed that uses the fact that the bottle falls one pitch when it reaches the starting end of the thread to determine the direction of the bottle, but since it is a contact area, it is not durable and the bottle and bottle are Since it is necessary to apply relative rotation between the steps, there is a drawback that it takes time and the processing capacity is low.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention solves these conventional problems and provides a non-contact method that can instantly determine the orientation of a non-circular glass bottle using a screw thread. This method was developed for the purpose of inspecting the direction of circular glass bottles.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention sets a ring-shaped floodlight directly above the mouth of a non-circular glass bottle, and connects an optical fiber arranged all around the inside of the floodlight to the glass bottle. A camera set above the center hole of the projector shoots the reflected light from the starting end of the thread while emitting a light beam to a position slightly lower than the top of the mouth. The feature is that the direction of the glass bottle is detected by determining from the video signal whether it is in a quadrant.

Next, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings.
(11 is a non-circular glass bottle whose orientation is inspected;
2) is the center hole (3) set directly above the mouth.
It is a ring-shaped floodlight. Inside the projector (2), a large number of optical fibers (4) are arranged around the entire circumference with their tips facing downward, and the base of each optical fiber (4) is connected to a light source (5) such as a strobe light source. has been done. When the light source (5) generates intermittent light, the floodlight (2)
) A light beam is irradiated from each optical fiber (4) built in the glass bottle (1) toward the mouth of the glass bottle (1), but at this time, the light beam is at a position slightly lower than the top of the mouth of the glass bottle (1). The height of the floodlight (2) is set so that it illuminates the glass bottle (11).As a result, the part of the glass bottle (11) lower than the top surface (6) of the mouth is uniformly illuminated. Since the upper surface of the starting end (8) of (7) has a shape close to a spherical surface, the light rays are strongly reflected upward, and when observed from directly above the mouth, other parts of the thread (7) Note that the top surface of the mouth (6) is not irradiated with light, so the top surface of the mouth does not shine in a ring shape, and the starting end (8) of the thread (7) is clearly visible. This kind of upward reflected light is photographed by a camera (9) set above the center hole (3) of the projector (2). CO with image elements arranged in a plane
A D camera or a normal industrial camera can be used, and the resulting image will look like the one shown in FIG. 2, for example. Since this image consists of one electronic scanning line (20) starting from the upper left corner and ending at the lower right corner, the entire screen is divided into four equal parts, and the reflected light with an intensity exceeding the threshold value is divided into four equal parts. Image (2)
The determination device α0 can electronically easily determine in which quadrant the position of 1) exists, and based on this, the position of the starting end (8) of the screw thread (7) and the position of the glass bottle fl)
This means that the direction of can be detected. Thereafter, it is sufficient to take appropriate measures such as using an existing direction changing device to rotate the glass bottle (1) by a predetermined angle to align the directions.

(Effects of the Invention) As is clear from the above description, the present invention is achieved by emitting a light beam from an optical fiber built into a ring-shaped projector to a position slightly lower than the top surface of the mouth of a glass bottle. The light is reflected upward from the starting end of the thread while preventing reflection from the top surface of the mouth, and the position of the reflected light is determined by imaging the reflected light with a camera set above the center hole of the projector. The device detects the direction of the glass bottle by determining which quadrant it is in, divided by the XY axis passing through the center point of the glass bottle. The direction of can be checked. In particular, if intermittent light such as strobe light is used as the light beam, the influence of afterimages on the image plane of the camera can be reduced, and the direction of glass bottles can be inspected accurately at extremely high speed. Therefore, the present invention not only solves the problems of the conventional contact-type orientation inspection method using screw threads, but also ensures that the orientation of the glass bottle can be determined in one go even when the shape of the body has no characteristic. Since it can be specified, it also solves the drawbacks of the conventional photoelectric direction inspection method. Therefore, the present invention greatly contributes to the industry as a method for inspecting the orientation of non-circular glass bottles such as oval bottles and stratum corneum.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of the measurement principle of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the image. (1); glass bottle, (2) two-stage optical device, (4): optical fiber, (7): screw thread, (8); starting end, (9) two cameras. Patent applicant: Ishizuka Glass Co., Ltd. Representative: Akira Shima Buma
Watanuki Tatsu separation
Yama Rei Fumio Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] A ring-shaped floodlight is set directly above the mouth of a non-circular glass bottle, and a beam of light is directed from an optical fiber placed all around the inside of the floodlight to a position slightly lower than the top of the mouth of the glass bottle. The reflected light from the starting end of the screw thread is photographed by a camera set above the center hole of the projector, and the position of the reflected light is determined from the video signal in which quadrant of the image the position of the reflected light is located. A method for inspecting the direction of a non-circular glass bottle, characterized by detecting the direction of the glass bottle.