An apparatus (1) for optical inspection of parisons (2) intended to be blow moulded to form containers, where the parisons (2) are made of plastic material and have a side wall (201), a closing bottom and a mouth end (202) having on its outside surface a screw thread (205) and an identification code (207) in relief, comprises: a conveyor (3) equipped with a plurality of receiving elements (4) configured to transport corresponding parisons (2) along a predetermined path where, in an inspection station located along the predetermined path, each parison (2) is positioned with its axis (208) aligned with a longitudinal reference axis; a stationary camera (7) mounted in such a way that its viewing axis (8) coincides with the longitudinal reference axis in order to see the interior of the parison (2); an illuminator (9) positioned around the viewing axis (8) of the camera (7) in order to irradiate the outside surface of the mouth end (202) of the parison (2) positioned in the inspection station. The camera (7) has a wide-angle lens and is configured to capture an image of an inside surface of the mouth end (202) of the parison (2) positioned in the inspection station, representing the screw thread (205) and the identification code (207) of the parison (2), shown in transparency.

Disclosed is a process for treating a container with plasma, for depositing a barrier layer on an internal face of the container. This process includes: after the plasma has been extinguished, obtaining a thermal image of the container; comparing the thermal image of the container with a reference thermal image stored in memory; and, if the thermal image of the container differs from the reference thermal image, modifying at least one of the following parameters: internal pressure, external pressure, precursor gas flow rate, microwave frequency, microwave power, duration of the treatment.

An apparatus (1) and a method for optical inspection of parisons (2) made of thermoplastic material comprises: a conveyor (3) comprising a pair of lateral, under-flange guides 31A for holding each parison by its flange, and configured to transport the parisons (2) in succession along an inspection path; an inspection station (41, 42, 43, 51, 52), located along the inspection path and including at least one inspection camera (410, 411, 412, 413, 421, 431, 510, 511, 520, 521, 522), configured to capture image data of a parison (2) positioned in the inspection station (41, 42, 43, 51, 52), wherein the conveyor (3) has a first operating configuration for transporting parisons (2) of a first size and a second operating configuration for transporting parisons (2) of a second size, different from the first size, the conveyor (3) including at least one adjustment actuator (7), configured to move the conveyor (3) between the first and the second operating configuration.

An apparatus and a method for detecting leakage from a composition-containing pouch during the high-speed manufacturing process. The apparatus comprises: a platen comprising a pouch cavity and a plurality of platen edges adjacent to the cavity; an image capturing unit; an image processing unit; and ultraviolet-light emitting source. The composition itself comprises a fluorescent whitening compound. The ultra-violet emitting light source is arranged to illuminate the cavity and plurality of platen edges. The image capturing unit is arranged to capture an image of the illuminated cavity and plurality of platen edges. The image capturing unit is communicably attached to the image processing unit.

A method and a system are disclosed for detecting features of a water layer in layered enclosures of single unit dose products. Thanks to the method and the system of the invention, the layered enclosures may be manufactured to higher specifications and quality owing to real time control of the features of the water layer between the enclosure layers. The technical advantage of the method of the invention consists in the possibility to detect the features after formation of the layered enclosure is completehence inspecting the finished productand to feed back the detected information to the very water laying device for a real time adjustment of the features of the water layer at the areas where acceptance criteria are not met.

An apparatus is for producing filled film bags. The apparatus includes plate elements, each having at least one mold recess, a first processing station with a deep-drawing arrangement for deep-drawing a base film into the mold recesses to form filling cavities, a second processing station with a filling arrangement for filling the filling cavities with a filling substance, and a third processing station with a sealing arrangement for sealing a cover film onto the base film while respectively forming a continuous circumferential seal edge around each of the filling cavities. The third processing station is followed by a fourth processing station with a testing device for optical acquisition and quality assessment of the seal edge. The testing device includes an optical camera, means for increasing the contrast of the images recorded by the camera, an illumination device, and an evaluation unit for the images recorded by the camera.

A reflectometry method and other methods for detecting discontinuities in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) coating are disclosed. The method includes several steps. A thermoplastic vessel wall (710) is provided having an outside surface, an inside surface, and a CVD coating on at least one of the inside and outside surfaces. The vessel wall and the CVD coating have different indices of refraction. Electromagnetic energy (718) is impinged on multiple positions of the CVD coating under conditions effective to cause energy to reflect from the multiple positions of the CVD coating. The reflected energy is analyzed to determine whether the reflected energy includes at least one artifact of a discontinuity in the CVD coating.

The present invention relates to a method and the corresponding system for checking the color quality of preforms (2) intended for the manufacture of containers, in particular beverage bottles, the preforms (2) being transported to a collection vessel (4) by a transport device (3), and an image of the preforms (2) being made by means of an imaging device (6) and being transmitted to a processing device for checking, in which the preforms (2) are led unsorted into the collection vessel (4) upon leaving the transport device (3), the image being made between the leaving of the transport device (3) and the collection vessel (4), and in which the image is processed by the processing device in such a way that the color quality of the preforms (2) and/or defective preforms (2) are discovered.

A test apparatus for checking container products (13) which are preferably composed of plastic materials and are produced using the blow-moulding, filling and sealing methods, which are filled with fluid which, for production-related reasons, can contain particulate contamination which is deposited on the container wall when the container (13) is still and which floats freely in the fluid when the container (13) is moving and/or which changes position owing to the movement and in this way can be detected by means of a sensor device (37), is characterized in that, by means of a vibration device (23), the respective container (13) can be made to oscillate at a prespecifiable excitation frequency in such a way that the respective particulate contamination (47) in the fluid can be detected.

Disclosed are a method and an accompanying system for inspecting objects (5) provided with a gas-barrier layer. The objects have at least one base layer (5a) of a first material, polyethylene or polypropylene, for example, and at least one gas-barrier layer of a different material, EVA or EVOH, for example. An image-recording module (6), such as an infrared camera, records an image of each object (5) and processes the images by means of a processing module (7) in such a way that faulty objects (5) are detected and eliminated. More specifically, the image recording module (6) creates the image of each object (5) within the invisible light spectrum, and the processing module (7) then examines the recorded image, wherein the presence, the absence or the thickness of the gas-barrier layer is determined on the basis of the image.