Xpar Vision has recently completed a project at Ardagh Group, Glass – North America, which was undertaken as part of Ardagh’s investment in enhanced quality and inspection equipment.
The partnership between Ardagh and Xpar Vision began 15 years ago.
Camiel van Dijk, responsible within Xpar Vision for customer relations with Ardagh Group, said: “We continuously work on improving our software to support container glass production efficiency and product quality. A lot of the improvements are based on customer feedback.
“The latest added functionalities enable detecting crucial defects, triggering a signal or alarm, and long-term image storing of all bottles produced.
"Other relevant software developments are: IR-D connection with CE equipment and implementation of Artificial Intelligence to incorporate root cause indication for operators.”
Closed loop control
Xpar Vision’s Infrared Dual camera system (IR-D) analyses every single bottle at the hot end in real time.
Subsequently, the system decides if a bottle is within quality requirements (inspection). Critical defects can be rejected, and thus cleaned up for smooth downstream processes, including cold end inspection.
From the data collected by the IR-D the forming process itself is visualised through process characteristics, based on trend data (monitoring).
Use of the IR-D by following up on warning and alarm notifications helps optimise the forming process, including mould design, IS maintenance, job change, swabbing, etc.
Furthermore, the IR-D data is used for the purpose of automated closed loop control.
