In the food industry, it is of prime importance that prefabricated cans and can-lids are of accurate dimensions. This is in order to ensure proper matching of lids and cans and therefore the formation of a permanent airtight seal after the filling and sterilization process. Otherwise, batch sealing failures could occur, which could be very costly to the company. Micro-Epsilon’s optoNCDT 2000 laser-optical displacement sensor, available from Bestech Australia, can measure such dimensions to high accuracy, and therefore could be used to avoid such costs.
This automated machine makes measurements without contact, with the aid of a laser-optical sensor. The exact location and dimensions of corrugations, the unfolded seam stitching height and the nominal core-height of the lid can all be acquired. The displacement sensor is not influenced by variations in basic container material colour, or by pre-printed advertising illustrations and text on the cans or the lids, therefore guaranteeing accurate results.
Bestech Australia’s range of non-contact laser sensors and eddy current sensors can also measure the vacuum integrity of cans, jars and bottles (since cap bending directly depends on internal pressure). The miniscule changes in the lid/cap bending can be detected by sensors such as the optoNCDT 2000 laser-optical displacement sensor, and compared to tolerances for quality assurance.
Such sensors can also be used to determine whether bottle caps have been attached to bottles properly, as the laser sensors can measure the distance to the cap, and any missing or unsecured caps can be easily identified by any substantial differences to normal.
The optoNCDT 2000 laser displacement measurement system can be accurate down to 10µm, with the same resolution. This means that even slight variations in dimensions or lid height can be detected, to a very high accuracy.
This laser-optical displacement sensor is available in Australia and New Zealand from Bestech Australia .