OCTUM GmbH, Renntalstraße 16, 74360 Ilsfeld, Germany

+49 (0) 7062 914940 info(at)octum.de

Octum GmbH

Healthy teeth with clean toothpaste.

Toothpaste ensures healthy, beautiful and clean teeth. But who thinks about whether the toothpaste is clean when brushing their teeth? A tube filling machine fills and seals up to 800 tubes per minute. Despite the high quality of the material, contamination with very small particles, deformations in the tube cross-section due to preceding work processes and, in rare cases, defective welding on the tube base cannot be completely ruled out. In order to be able to offer 100% fault-free products, machine vision systems are used.

A high-speed tube filling machine transports six tubes per cycle on two tracks through the machine. Three image recordings are triggered per cycle and camera. This enables a high resolution of detail per tube, which means that even the smallest particles inside the tube can be reliably detected. For this inspection method, cameras are required that are robust enough to withstand the continuous load of a 3-shift operation over the long term. At the same time, the cameras must be powerful enough to handle the three image evaluations within one machine cycle. After all, the shortest time between two image acquisitions is 70ms. These criteria are met by the In-Sight cameras from our partner Cognex. In conjunction with a respectively adapted LED illumination, which is controlled in flash mode, three inspection stations with two cameras each were created in this way, in which the tubes are inspected for roundness, contamination and correct weld seam.

Filling of pressed-in tubes leads to contamination of the machine and means a long standstill for cleaning. The roundness check means that tubes that have already been pressed in during the outer packaging or feeding process are not filled, thus avoiding downtimes. The particle and weld seam inspection prevents contaminated or not completely sealed tubes from reaching the trade and thus the end user. These are all important arguments for the toothpaste manufacturer when choosing a machine supplier.