Introduction

Also motor oils and gasoline proceed toward the Washer Machine infeed, hidden into returned bottles

    Also motor oils and gasoline proceed toward the Washer Machine infeed, hidden into returned bottles







It is a fact: when bottles are urgently needed, also glass returnable bottles born to host beer or mineral water, can fulfill their basic purpose of container for liquids of completely different nature.   Out of the Bottling Plant its glass and PRB returnable bottles can in reality encounter a use to contain mineral oils, like the motor oil,  petrol, gasoline and other hydrocarbons.  The consequences of a seeminlgy innocent act, without an electronic device capable to detect hydrocarbons before these bottles reach the Filler Machine, can affect severely the health of the people later ingesting those hydrocarbons.  Worldwide press shows plenty of these news, on a daily base.  



Oil-beverage mix prevention

Mineral oils whose level over the bottles' base top of the inner convexity amounts to (5 – 10) mm, can be detected by a specific inspection part of the Empty Bottle Inspector.  How many millimeters, how many milliliters, strictly depends on the glass (or, PRB):

  • thickness;
  • transparency to the infrared portion of the em spectra;
  • linear speed of the bottle, slower Lines allow more time to integrate measurements arising by a single bottle.                     

For this purpose, the illuminator of the bottle Base inspection, an array of LEDs or a strobo flasher, encounters a second use as source of light for the IR Residual Liquid Control. An additional IR sensor, intercepts and convert in electric signal a portion of the light pulse directed toward the Base inspection CCD or CMOS-camera. The signal is then amplified and digitised, then resulting normalized in a desired range, quite commonly 4096 bit wide.  This result is then compared to the limit values the Service Technician has to set for the IR Residual Control inspection, during the commissioning of the Empty Bottle Inspector.  















  Benzene oxide molecule. One of the most frequently oils whose traces are encountered into returned bottles (picture Jynto/CC0 1.0)






Differences greater than the reject threshold referred to non-defective bottles, shall control the rejection of the container toward one of two mutually alternative way out:

  • automatic destruction, in a bin;
  • return to Bottle Washer Machine, for a second attempt to wash the bottle.


 A sight into one an EBI optoelectronics cabinet. The illuminator of the bottle Base inspection (an array of LEDs or a strobo flasher, like in this case), encounters a second use as source of light for the IR Residual Liquid Control. A sensor sensible to the infrared portion of the spectra, intercepts part of the photons and converts them in electric signal.  The signal, then amplified and digitised, results finally normalized in a desired range and compared with a set range.




 Marked yellow the infrared band of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, comprised between visible ultraviolet UV and microwaves

Layout remarks

A bottle with mineral oil into should not enter at all into any Bottle Washer Machine.  If, on the opposite, it enters the Washer Machine, this results in contamination of the inner water.  Contamination later well visible as an iridescent effect over the external sidewall of thousands of bottles.   This, meaning that a relatively small amount of mineral oil, e.g. 200 ml, is yet enough to leave a truly negative memory of its passage to many thousands of following bottles.   As a consequence, the correct destination for the Infrared Residual Liquid Control rejects is toward the automatic destruction, e.g. jointly with the Finish inspection rejects, rather then a return to the Bottle Washer Machine.  But, in general, there is always the possibility that several inspections part of  the Empty Bottle Inspector separately detect a defect in a single bottle.  An example arises by the case when a massive amount of water-based residual liquid lies into the bottle. 

   

 Droplets of motor oil of mineral origin suspended into water.  Returnable bottles following special temporary necessities can fulfill their most basic purpose of container, terminating filled with hydrocarbons 

like this where the measurement of the information is affected by poor Specificity.   This shall force in the end the Bottler in a closed vicious circle.   These bottles filled with so much water and soda, are clear markers of plastic foils and papers jamming the out feeds of water by the bottles, where these are purportedly tilted upside down to empty and rinse them in the Bottle Washer Machine. The example above meant to remember that the Empty Bottle Inspector is a complex Expert System born to prevent extreme undesidered consequences to final Customers; but not the best way to help to, namely, posticipate the due ordinary maintenance of the Washer.  

E.g., a bottle whose capacity is 330 ml, reaching the EBI by the Washer Machine filled with 250 ml of (hot) water and caustic soda, shall be  also considered a defect.  High Frequency Residual liquid control.   Then, two separate inspections shall intervene requesting a reject, and not only the Infrared Residual Liquid control we are  here treating.   The common outfeed for a bottle with water and soda into is surely the Bottle Washer but not for the Infrared Residual Liquid control, as we saw. This bottle shall surely be sent to Bottle Washer, in contradiction with the rule to prevent bottles with mineral oils from entering the Bottle Washer Machine.  Simply: there are too many cases  



Links to other pages:

EBI Classification

Classification on base of the kind of container Empty Bottle Inspectors (EBIs) and the related measurements whose goal is a binary classification (collectively named inspections), are a category making a particularly sensitive activity: to protect final consumers' health, assuring beverages' safety in the Food and Beverage Packaging Lines. …

One of the greatest and most expensive linear Empty Bottle Inspectors today existing in the World: GROLSCH® at Hengelo, The Netherlands (CARLSBERG® Group). An image shot by our staff when installing and powering it. It is used at a speed of only 40 000 bottles per hour and equipped with a wealth of 18 inspections. Its binary classification task is accomplished by mean of 4 rejectors: 3 in its outfeed (lower side in the image) and 1 in its infeed (upper side in the image). The total length of conveyors controlled by this Empty Bottle Inspector is ~14 meters. Its total price ~2 000 000 $

Rotary-Linear EBI ComparisonRotary EBIThe Empty Bottle Inspectors of the past were always and only Rotary Machines. The industries which first started to design and produce them and those which adopted them, were all US-based and specialized in the production of glass bottles. …

Introduction When discussing elsewhere the High Frequency fill level inspection, we also examined the complex mechanism of interaction between the High Frequency (HF) electromagnetic waves (3 - 30 MHz) and polar liquids like water. …

Introduction It is a fact: when bottles are urgently needed, also glass returnable bottles born to host beer or mineral water, can fulfill their basic purpose of container for liquids of completely different nature. …

Introduction Base inspection is the most important at all and also the first historically created for EBIs. In the start, it was applied to small inspectors used by glass bottles Producers. It is always present in the Empty Bottle Inspectors, as a minimum standard, jointly with a few others like the High Frequency Residual Liquid control and the Finish inspection.

A common PET bottle as visible with (right side) and without (left side) polarising filtering. At right side, cellophane in the stripes around the bottle rotates the light polarization vector (image credit C. López-Mariscal, US Naval Research Labs., 2014) Semitransparent and transparent foreign bodies are much more difficult to detect than opaque. Plastic foils like those folding packs of cigarettes, are often encountered in the base of RGBs (Returnable Glass Bottles). Plastic foils rotate in a fixed direction the spin angle of the polarized light. Then, to detect plastic foils, light is forced to pass thru an additional delay filter, whose delay is related to the angle with whom all plastics rotate the plane of polarization. Finally, a separate base camera detects these images. To detect the truly difficult completely transparent cigarette plastic foils, it is not as efficient as the Inner Sidewall inspection.

A common PET bottle as visible with (right side) and without (left side) polarising filtering. At right side, cellophane in the stripes around the bottle rotates the light polarization vector (  …

Introduction The term “finish” originates with the mouth-blown bottle production process where the last step in completing a finished bottle was to finish its lip. Today, the lip or finish is the first forming step in the bottle making process. …

Finish inspection, broken Thread

Operative principleThe operative principle of the Finish inspection is applied, in a similar way, to the more complex case of check of the status of the glass threads. In this case, light is generated by an illuminator on top of the finish. …

In the Linear Glass Returnable Empty Bottle Inspectors, External Sidewall Inspection may be performed adopting one or two CCD-cameras. We’ll treat in the following the application with two CCD-cameras: single-camera applications are not satisfactory, covering only < 80 % of the external surface of the bottles.

Why Inner Sidewall InspectionThe inner surface of the bottle may host larvae, insects and other low-contrast foreign objects whose detection, as seen by the External Sidewall is nearly impossible. …

IntroductionThey exist defects no Bottle Washer shall never remove, whatever the duration of its cycles, the amount of caustic soda or temperature of the water. Between these:Paint, internal or external;…

Scuffing inspection

IntroductionScuffing is a memory of the many passages of the returnable bottle thru the Bottling Line, mainly of the wearing of its external sidewalls after friction with other adiacent bottles. …

EBIs Infeed checks

Infeed ChecksEmpty Bottle Inspectors always need to be protected by prior controls and rejector, to prevent damages implicit in their operation. Dammages originated by: fallen bottles, inclined bottles, …

IntroductionTo perceive the rationale for the inspection of the bottles’ colour, we recommended to take a look at the figure on right side. That is what a Customer considered “a bottle format”. …

Closure position digital inspection with photoscanners

Closure inspection by digital Photoscanners(to be continued)Links to other pages: 



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