OCTUM GmbH, Renntalstraße 16, 74360 Ilsfeld, Germany

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

Octum GmbH

A deep look into the cup so that everything fits.

Thermoformed products such as drinking and storage cups with and without lids or portion packs play a major role in everyday life in the food industry. There is hardly an economical alternative to thermoformed plastic packaging. Dimensional stability is an important factor for stackability and tightness. Dimensional accuracy also plays a role in the force with which a sealing lid can be applied or removed. The precise measurement is to be used to quickly optimize the thermoforming process when a new product is run in. For this purpose, the large variety of parts, from round drinking cups to rectangular lids cambered with a tear-off tab, must be precisely measured without great effort.

 

When designing the measuring system, the variety of parts and the demand for the simplest possible handling without mechanical adjustment of the optical components and without programming or parameterization is a challenge. The permissible cup or lid height is between 1-185mm. The cups can be measured on the cup bottom or with the opening. These requirements were realized with blue transmitted light illumination, a high-resolution GigE camera and bi-telecentric measuring lens with 245mm opening diameter and 260mm telecentric range. The simple operation of the system is ensured by the CV_Inspect system software. CV_Inspect uses DXF files directly from the product manufacturer's CAD system as the basis for teaching and measuring. The inspection regions for optical measurement are automatically generated from these DXF files. After manual insertion of the cups or lids, they are then measured semi-automatically for diameter, roundness and other shape-specific dimensions. The measuring accuracy is +/- 50µm. The measured values are visualized to allow direct conclusions for a thermoforming optimization as well as statistically recorded as proof of quality for the customer. After calibration of the system and import of the CAD data, the system is ready for measurement.