Ultrasonic fobbing systems


Why the ultrasonic fobbing systems ?

Common disadvantages of the closure optic inspection systems: 

  • Optic, with 1, 2, or 3 CCD-cameras
  • Tamper evidence band 
  • Missing closure, inclined and high closure

based on CCD and CMOS-cameras, are high price and complexity.   More, they all require dry closures, as pre-condition for the optic closure inspection. The disadvantage of the closure inspection based on single analog photosensor, is that it only detects missing closures, when this type of closure defect is typically < 20 % of all of the closure defects, the remaining 80 % being:   

  • broken TE band;  
  • closure too high or inclined.  

Then, in the reality, a cheap optic closure inspection with analog photosensor shall be a guarantee to send to the Market 80 % of the leaking closures.


Ultrasonic fobbing inspection was born for multi lane conveyors like this. It can also be applied to single-lanes in the filler outfeed, if the conveyor is tilted around 10º, to guarantee the same full contact with the left side guide and ultrasound transducer (image credit Stratec® Bbull®)



A different approach to safety


















In the reality, it exists a completely different way to attack the food safety problem lying back of the closure inspection. What they really look for all these inspections ? …open closures.   Open enough to let air come in and/or product get out, when the bottle is squeezed and tilted upside-down.   This last being the condition when also a microscopic opening reveals itself.    If a bottle treated that way doesn’t loose product, it means it is sealed. The “way-out” we’ll describe in the following is nothing prototypical, it exists since several years. Unfortunately, only a few Vendors keeps it into their catalogue.  Keep it, … and rarely propose to Bottlers !     We all know that shaking a PET or glass container filled with a carbonated product, results in a fast increase on internal pressure, showing macroscopic effects of sprinkling out, if the container is not perfectly sealed.   

A different way to shake the liquid is exposing it to a powerful beam of ultrasounds: mechanical energy is then transferred to the carbonated product and, if the entire bottle (not only its closure) is not truly sealed, the liquid shall (spectacularly) sprinkle out.  A following underfilling level inspection, the same we’d however have had out of a filling bloc, shall shortly later reject this bottles because macroscopically underfilled.  It’s an extremely simple and cheap solution, not requiring optoelectronics know-how to maintenance staff, virtually immune by the losses-on-production (false rejects) which frequently accompain all the other kinds of leakage inspection.    On the opposite:

  • periodic maintenance limited to cleaning of the ultrasound transducer and conveyor;
  • electronic installation limited to connection to 230 VAC mains.

Figure before shows its action after the filling bloc, as an inclined oscillating metal rail which align all bottles the same distance, equalizing this way the transfer of mechanical energy to the liquid. Maximum production speed is limited to 40 000 bph.   Liquid has to be carbonated.  When carbonation is minimum, it has to be a sugar-added drink.


Links to other pages about Closure Inspection:

Crown-Cork, Threaded Cap or LidUltrasound Inner Pressure Inspection IntroductionIn these web pages we have frequently remarked the necessity to answer the fundamental question:…is it safe, can be sold that bottle?

Plastic Cap Visual Check with 1 Camera. The optic closure inspection is the most modern, comprehensive and satisfactory way to control closures’ status, its only disadvantages being cost and complexity, as seen by the user side. It is devoted to detection of cocked (inclined) closures, broken TE (tamper evident) bands, closures applied too high or absent at all. All these factors implying contamination of the product and extremal risks for Consumers. The basic operation principle implies a single CCD or CMOS-camera, allowing a partial coverage, < 180º, of the closure external lateral surface. The optic system includes 3 mirrors to increase the focal length, minimising optic aberrations due to parallax error.

  Broken Tamper Evident Rings, missing and inclined cap, cap too high or too low are the controls most commonly performed by mean visual cap camera systems Links to other Closure controls pages:…

plastic cap visual check wi med-2

  Links to other Closure controls: Contact

Optic Closure Presence inspection, with analog photosensorsIntroductionThe optic closure inspection, with analog photosensor, is one of the simplest inspections existing. It adopts an analog photosensor, with a projector irradiating passing closures by the top and a receiver giving out to an operational amplifier a signal whose extension, the duration counted in encoder pulses, is proportional to the reflection. …

Laser check of Closure InclinationLinks to other pages about Closure Inspection:    The added value to apply a LASER slantedcap inspection to a Vision cap check Two different configurations exist for the LASER check of slanted caps:…

Inductive Closure or Lid Presence Inspection 4096x3079@1x. Introduction The simplest and cheapest way to check for the closing status of a container, where the closure is metallic, is the inductive-digital. The sensor is then an inductive one, its output an NPN polarity, on-off signal. The one figured on side shows an example of this basic solution, where the cap sensor is referred to a Trigger photosensor obscured by the container along its passage, before it starts to be detected by the inductive sensor. Disadvantages The system is very cheap but it presents a relevant disadvantage. It can be detected only: cap presence; cap absence; metal caps (e.g., aluminium, steel or tin). This meaning that a container capped by, i.e. a cap inclined 45º, then a container surely open, shall be considered correctly closed and passed to the Market. The signal outcoming by these sensors is normally a quite fluctuating one: impossible to act on the signal duration, when trying to detect mal-positioned closures. Advantages However simple, this system has however several important advantages: capable to reach also the highest production speed, typically > 140000 cph; economy; a sensor like the one partially visible in the image (Pepperl+Fuchs®) or one of the many equivalent by different Vendors, is very cheap (<100 $); is always available wherever in the World.

IntroductionThe simplest and cheapest way to check for the closing status of a container, where the closure is metallic, is the inductive-digital. The sensor is then an inductive one, its output an NPN polarity, on-off signal. …

Inner Pressure Inspection by Induction. Oscillograms deriving by the induction analog measurements of two different lids. Each oscillogram composed by the sequence of hundredths of individual samplings operated by a single-channel analog sensor. A symmetric one representing an actually closed can. An asymmetric one, representing a leaking can whose inner pressure is low. Passing one and the same can closed by a lid through one and the same Inner Pressure Inductive Inspection, a statistically significative number of times, i.e. 1000 times, results in 1000 slightly different oscillograms. From a layman point of view, differences representing the superposed effect of physical properties of the object, measurement instrument and medium, changing during the 1000 tests. Differences making sense of the way IGUSes (further details about IGUS, here) observe the state space where the entire description of the object exists.

Inner Pressure Inspectionby InductionOscillograms deriving by the induction analog measurements of two different lids. Each oscillogram composed by the sequence of hundredths of individual samplings operated by a single-channel analog sensor. …

Ultrasonic fobbing systemsWhy the ultrasonic fobbing systems ?Common disadvantages of the closure optic inspection systems: Optic, with 1, 2, or 3 CCD-camerasTamper evidence band Missing closure, inclined and high closure…

3-D cap colour space. To perceive the rationale for the inspection of the caps’ colour, we recommended to see the video below. It has been filmed in a PepsiCo plant and in a beverage Bottling Line where, at the time of the film our staff commissioned twelve different formats, personalized by twelve different colours for the cap. In this conditions the production face the risk of: Operators errors in the special sort bottle + cap: entire cartons of wrong caps reaching the Capper; caps of the wrong colour mixed in the lot of the caps of the correct colour. A solution pass thru the control of the colour of each one cap applied by the Capper Machine. Colour control made illuminating with a source of known spectrum (a halogen lamp) the cap. Part of the light reflected by the cap enters the lens of a trichromatic detector. This is a device with three separate channels, referred to the familiar fundamental colours red, green and blue. The signal in the outfeed of each one channel is separately amplified and later digitised and processed, comparing the digitised value with upper and lower limits set during the commissioning. The signals incoming by three separate channels, each one corresponding to a fundamental colour, are processed to deduce the cap colour. The couple of yellow colour vertical lines are the inspection window, the range of distances measured in millimetres equivalent to Encoder pulses. In the vertical axe of the diagram they appear, digitized in a scale of 4096 bits, the signals’ amplitudes. In the example shown, a cap has been measured thru all three channels with approximately the same amplitude ~1380 bits. The image setup in the meantime specifying a “good colour 1” implies that all caps whose chromatic mix similar to this one shall be considered correctly coloured. Where “correctly” means their colour is coherent with the currect production As an example, refer to the graphic on right side: a couple of yellow colour vertical lines represents the inspection window, the range of distances in the Inspector's Shifting-Register, where the three chromatic channels are evaluated; red colour the red chroma signal, whose grey level is normalized (0 - 4096); blue colour the blue chroma signal amplitude, whose grey level is normalized (0 - 4096); green colour the green chroma signal, whose grey level is normalized (0 - 4096); white colour their superimposed amplitude, whose grey level is normalized (0 - 4096). Caps whose tri-chromatic mix is out of each one of the three allowed ranges, shall be rejected. In the example, a cap has been measured thru all three channels with approximately the same amplitude ~1380 bits. The image setup in the meantime specifying a “good colour 1” implies that all caps whose chromatic mix similar to this one shall be considered correctly coloured. Where “correctly” means their colour is coherent with the currect production In the video above it is visible ad addition to the standard configuration of this kind of devices, namely a stainless steel curved screen, opposite to the source of light and trichromatic sensor. The Sun in some special times of the day, gets into that PepsiCo Bottling Hall, infeeding the thrichromatic sensor. Knowingly, Sun’s spectrum is continous and centred on yellow colour. The screen allow to overwhelm these phases, preventing Electronic Inspector’s systematic errors: huge false rejects stopping the entire 50000 bph PET Bottling Line.

Caps' Colour InspectionTo perceive the rationale for the inspection of the Caps’ Colour, we recommended to see the video below. It has been filmed in a PepsiCo plant and in a beverage Bottling Line where, at the time of the film our staff commissioned twelve different formats, personalized by twelve different colours for the cap. …

Unproper system

Dewatering systemsRefer to the figure on right side, where a green colour scanning line intercepted a water drop scanning, and measured its distance to the bottle’s plastic, greater than toward the closure top surface: a wrong distance. …

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