Baking & Snack - June 2007 - 102

PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

the muffins and rejecting those that are not compliant."
The inspection system uses a single black-and-white
camera, yet LeMatic is also working with systems that
employ more than one camera as well as color cameras,
which allow for more contrast in color ranges.
"We have a 3-camera system on our floor now that we
are doing R&D on, and we are looking at a wide belt of
product," Mr. Anater said. "We are using one camera to
look at the color and seed-distribution characteristics on
the top of the product, another camera that is looking at
laser-scanned image of the product as it goes by to measure height and profile characteristics of the product, and
the third camera is looking at the bottom of the product
through a gap in the conveyor. It is looking at characteristics of color or irregularities or blemishes, and we
develop criteria based on all that."
LeMatic calls its line of vision-assisted and robotic
equipment AutoOp, as in "automatic operator," and it intends to have a good representation of this equipment at
the International Baking Industry Exposition in October.
The company's plan is to be able to add its vision systems
to existing packaging equipment. "There may be applications that are pretty straightforward and others that are
not," Mr. Anater said. "It depends on the overall layout
and how much room is available. Generally, newer lines
have a better chance of a retrofit because they tend to be
more of a straight line flow."
Although he specifically addressed the packaging area,
he noted that there are opportunities for vision systems
to be employed in other areas of bakeries. Wherever people are looking at product along the way and taking some
action, there is a good possibility a vision system could be
integrated into the line, Mr. Anater added.
VISIONS VERSATILITY. Options for vision systems in
bakeries are limitless, according to Mr. Hoskins. "Vision
has come so far that we can pretty much handle most
typical applications in the baking industry," he said.
Colborne/Foodbotics offers vision systems for a variety of its equipment destined for bakeries and sees it
as a benefit for the end user. It began developing vision
systems because the equipment manufacturer already
had the expertise in-house to integrate and manufacture
many ancillary items such as rejection mechanisms, conveyors and downstream automation.
"Generally, vision suppliers rely heavily on OEMs to fine
tune the application and offer feasible rejection methods
for a particular application," Mr. Hoskins added. "The gap
between vision companies and end users is still too large
for the vision companies to integrate that supply."
Colborne/Foodbotics employs vision systems for four
different purposes: quality inspection, grade-based inspection, machine control and bag closure inspection.
Its quality inspection systems not only remove any labor
responsible for routine checks, but they are also designed
106 / BAKING & SNACK / June 2007

for high-capacity lines where a manual quality assurance
inspection is impossible.
Grade-based inspection systems examine product for
various qualities. "As an example, a product with one shape
may be retail grade and diverted to a primary robotic packaging system that will pack in a standard retail package, and
a product that falls out of specification may be diverted to a
secondary automatic packaging station where they are bulk
packed for thrift stores," Mr. Hoskins said. "These systems
are great for reducing product and packaging waste because
we are doing real-time analysis on quality and diverting
product to its proper packaging area."
Vision systems also can tell robots where products are
located. "These systems are now integrated into robot control, so they have seamless communication and can distribute orders to various robots within a cell," he added.
The bag closure inspection system is a standard product to detect whether a bag is properly closed. It looks
at the shape of the bag neck rather than the plastic clip
or twist tie itself. "This is a much more effective way to
determine proper closure, because you can have a tie in
place but not have the bag properly closed," Mr. Hoskins
explained. "This system has various methods of rejection
available such that it is easy to manually close the bag
properly and reintroduce to the system."
Vision implementation is generally a wakeup call for
bakers, he said. "Vision systems will be methodical in
grading or inspecting your product," Mr. Hoskins said.
"Just because you have a written specification doesn't
mean your current manual inspection method is doing
a good job following that specification. A vision system
will do a very good job, and all of a sudden after vision
is implemented,
you will be rejecting 50% of
what is normally considered
good product.
This can be a
big shock to
first-time implementers."
Bakeries can
add or retrofit
ᮣ Cameras used
with vision systems
generally will be
placed in protective
enclosures because
of the harsh environments in bakeries. This
enclosure has a Lexan
cover that the camera
can see through, when
properly calibrated.
COLBORNE CORP./FOODBOTICS

Baking & Snack - June 2007

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