The evolution of the design capabilities of the Goito based Company includes two new machine vision systems guaranteeing performance, less production waste and top-quality finished products.
While on one hand, faster bottling lines ensure production schedules can be met, on the other, they make it very difficult – if not impossible – for the line operator to accurately check every individual bottle. Only automatic quality control and bottle orientation systems can guarantee the precise characteristics of each finished product, preventing defective bottles from reaching the market.
This is no news to Makro Labelling, one of the leading industrial labeller manufacturers, always committed to taking account of, or anticipating, the market’s requests, developing products, systems and patents able to guarantee performance, lower costs, less production waste and top-quality packaging.
The choice for advanced technological skills, production process rationalisation and the ability to anticipate the evolution of the market.
“The machine vision system is the natural follow-through to the labelling process, as the procedure does not end when the label has been applied. It is necessary to check that the right label has been attached, positioned correctly and smoothed without defects. We at Makro Labelling therefore decided to create an in-house Vision Department and to invest heavily in developing two new vision systems: RAPTOR and A.L.I.C.E. now well established in the market to guarantee perfect and complete integration with machine automation and a flexible, intuitive, practical response to companies who know they need automatic systems”, says Simone Marcantoni, C.E.O. of Makro Labelling.
Fruit of about 10,000 hours of software development, the two systems integrate with the labelling machines and are also simple to manage for the line operator who can thus exploit the system to the full.
In-house development and production of the two systems allows our customers to interface with a single producer, able to guarantee rapid and direct technical assistance and above all to satisfy the market’s diverse packaging needs, once again confirming the concept of flexibility which has been a hallmark of Makro Labelling since the beginning.
RAPTOR (Rapid To Orientate)
RAPTOR is the new innovative optical orientation system completely designed, developed, assembled and installed by Makro Labelling.
The system uses 1 camera (maximum speed 20,000 bph) or 2 cameras (maximum speed 50,000 bph). The camera is positioned around the main head near the entry star and is fixed to the bottom of the main head.
The system is fully integrated into the machine’s main touch screen, so it can be easily operated by the operator in any situation. The high resolution of the camera, combined with the accurate and fast data analysis software, guarantees accuracy and high orientation performance.
ALICE (Advanced Label Inspection Control Environment)
A.L.I.C.E. is a quality control system able to assess the horizontal and vertical position and angle of the label, together with its alignment with respect to a reference point, whether the logo on the glass, a capsule or another label.
The software can manage up to 4 cameras simultaneously, and the following controls are available for each of them on the acquired image:
- Relative reference (bottle follow-up);
- Vertical label position and tilt control; Wrapping collar alignment;
- Control of horizontal label position
and tilt; - Barcode reading;
- Code2D;
- OCR
- Right label control (up to 4 models);
- Label presence or printing (up to 4
presences); - Defect control;
Like RAPTOR, the ALICE system is fully integrated into the machine’s touch screen, so it can be fully managed by the operator in any situation. By monitoring the data analysis with absolute precision, it makes the control perfect for maximum results.
