Stronger, sustainable packaging with hot-melt glue inspection

The global drinks industry produces millions of products every single day. Open or damaged packs can be a serious safety issue, as well as the cause of customer complaints or product recalls. 

As sustainability efforts gather pace, and more manufacturers move to reduce plastic from production, the challenge of ensuring pack and pallet stability with sustainable alternatives requires a new approach to automated quality control.

The UK-based integrator Bytronic recently installed a new automated vision inspection system on a plastic-free multipack assembly line at a global brewing company using Teledyne FLIR thermal imaging cameras. 

Preventing downtime and defective packaging while helping to eliminate plastic wrapping was the big challenge.

The system - called Hotspot - combines the Teledyne FLIR A50 (previously A35) smart sensor thermal imaging camera with smart software programming to inspect the application of hot melt glue beads on cardboard multipacks.

Guaranteeing plastic-free pack stability with thermal inspection

The Teledyne FLIR A50 (previously A35) Smart Sensor camera is designed for condition monitoring. With built-in, on-camera analytics, temperature measurement and analysis can be easily done without a PC. 

By capturing a thermal image through the cardboard, the HotSpot system identifies glue position to show if glue has been applied correctly; the right amount, in the right place and at the right temperature. 

It alerts operators to any deviation in glue application, so defects can be spotted before leaving the line, preventing collapsing packs or breakages on-site or during transportation.

Preventing product recalls

Bottling lines will often be running continuously - in this case producing up to 60 multipacks every minute. Such high-speed operations require the latest high-speed inspection methods.

Traditional manual checks at timed intervals leave space for product escapes through natural human error.

Using Teledyne FLIR thermal cameras placed above the line to inspect every seal on every pack, HotSpot provides a fast and non-destructive in-line test of pack integrity.

Such is its success, that HotSpot has been expanded from a single trial to five production lines - both new and retrofitted - in under two years. The system is now being installed as standard with every new line.