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FOR ENGINEERS AND INTEGRATORS WORLDWIDE

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w w w . v i s i o n - s y s t e m s . c o m V I S I O N S Y S T E M S D E S I G N O c t o b e r 2 0 1 0 31

on Market OpportunitiesS P O T L I G H T

A major US manufacturer of ice cream

wanted to limit its liability and protect its

customers from surprise allergic reactions

caused by the wrong ice cream going into

the wrong tub or closed with the wrong

lid. The food producer turned to machine-

vision integrator Machine Vision Consulting,

which developed a label-checking system

that would check both the label on the side of

the squared off/round (or “sqround”) shaped

container and the label on the top of the con-

tainer, and compare those fi ndings to a recipe

selected by the production line operator.

The solution, which is now a turnkey

system sold under the name of SureLabel, is

based on a pair of Point Grey Research Flea2

cameras, a Cognex 8501 frame grabber with

24-V I/O daughter card, Smart Vision Lights

bar lights, and Cognex VisionPro image-pro-

cessing software in a PC. The PC sends fail

signals to a nearby Allen Bradley Micrologix

programmable logic controller (PLC) that

controls a reject mechanism.

No allergic reaction

“The customer came to us and was nervous

about its customers possibly having an

allergic reaction to an ingredient in the

ice cream because of improper labeling,”

explains Jef f rey

Dannay, president of

Machine Vision Consulting.

“So we designed a system that would look

at the artwork on both the top and the side

of the sqround with an easy-to-use recipe

storage and retrieval system. They really liked

the recipe system because it was very easy to

train, which is important when you make

hundreds of different fl avors of ice cream,

each with different labels and artwork.”

He said that the recipe system also made it

easy to choose the fl avor and, therefore, the

inspection routine using menus or a hand-

held barcode scanner. The operator can

simply scan the barcode on the side of the

sqround with a barcode or data matrix reader,

and the software automatically loads the right

inspection routine into the SureLabel system.

The ice cream label-inspection system was

a retrofi t to existing production equipment.

Dannay designed the system to easily inte-

grate with existing conveyors and networks

as necessary but also to work in standalone

mode, depending on the customer’s needs.

For the ice cream inspection application,

the customer wanted Dannay’s company

to install the label checker at a small facil-

ity near MVC’s Boston-area headquarters.

N o w t h a t

the system has

proven itself, MVC

plans to move the system to a larger

ice cream manufacturing plant in Indi-

ana as the fi rst of 20 such installations for

the customer.

Sqround imaging

The SureLabel system is designed in three

parts: an enclosure for the camera, optics,

lights, and photoeye trigger; followed by a

rejector mechanism and accumulator; and

concluding with the computer station, which

also holds the Allen Bradley Micrologix PLC

(see Fig. 1).

The conveyor that carries the ice cream

sqrounds is only wide enough to allow the

containers to pass length-wise through the

camera enclosure for inspection. Because

the sqrounds are all facing the same direc-

tion, system designers could inspect the con-

tainers using only two Point Grey Flea2 cam-

eras: one for the top, the other for the side (or

front) of the container.

“We chose the Flea2 because of its small

size [29 × 29 × 30 mm] and the ability to fi t

with the Goyo 6-mm, 2/3-in. sensor lens in

a compact Allison Park Group stainless-steel

Sweet Success

Winn Hardin, Contributing Editor

Ice cream label-checking system relies on off-the-shelf

machine-vision components to ensure accurate packaging

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S P O T L I G H T on Market Opportunities

enclosure,” explains Dannay. “This is a food-

processing operation and, therefore, needs to

be washdown ready and comply with 21 CFR

Part 11.” 21 CFR Part 11 comprises US gov-

ernment regulations that target pharmaceu-

tical production systems. These regulations—

which are designed to document production

equipment operation to improve quality,

limit liability, and aid companies in the event

of a recall—are used increasingly by the food-

processing industry (see Fig. 2).

Dannay adds that he also wanted to go

with the Flea2 FireWire camera because

FireWire and Gigabit Ethernet cameras can

easily scale up to larger numbers. Adding

analog cameras, while cheaper in the short

run, will eventually necessitate additional

frame grabbers, adding cost and complexity

to the label inspection system.

MVC chose to use a Cognex 8501 frame

grabber with optoisolated I/O mezzanine

card even though they did not plan to use

a frame grabber except for I/O. “We did it

FIGURE 2. The SureLabel system with

cameras, in washdown-ready paneling,

supports US FDA requirements to simplify

container product tracking and help

identify production problems.

FIGURE 1. The MVC SureLabel system has

been installed at a US ice cream manufacturer.

Because it is installed in a food-processing

facility, it had to be washdown ready.

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Reject

mechanism

controlled by

Allen Bradley

Micrologix PLC

via 24-VDC

control cable

17-in. touchscreen from

Hope Industrial Systems -

HIS-ML17-STAC-1

Dell T3500 dual-core PC, with Point Grey FireWire card,

Cognex 8501 frame grabber with I/O mezzanine card

Allen Bradley Micrologix 1400 PLC gets signal

from encoder and photoeye trigger

Camera enclosure

Two Flea2 Point

Grey cameras with

Goyo 6-mm optics

Two 300-mm

Smart Vision Lights

bar lights

Keyence PC-G

photoeye trigger/sensor

because it made it easier to integrate the

VisionPro image-processing library into the

system,” says Dannay. “We are very famil-

iar with the VisionPro software and use it

when we can.”

In addition to the two Flea2 cameras,

each in their own AGP stainless-steel hous-

ing, the camera enclosure also includes a

pair of Smart Vision Lights 300-mm bar

lights. “These lights are connected directly

to a power supply and not to the PC for con-

trol and they are the best when it comes

to washdown compliance, operation, and

cost,” Dannay says.

“We don’t actually point them at the product.

Instead, we point them at diffusing panels on

the inside walls of the stainless-steel camera

enclosure to provide a bright, even light

throughout the camera enclosure. The strobe

controller is embedded within the light and is

controlled (signaled) directly from the camera.”

As the sqround passes into the camera

enclosure, it breaks the beam from a Key-

ence PC-G retrorefl ective photoeye sensor.

The 24-VDC signal is sent to the optoisolated

I/O card on the Cognex 8501 frame grabber

to begin the image acquisition and inspec-

tion procedure (see Fig. 3).

FIGURE 3. A sqround container passes into

the camera enclosure (from right), breaking

a photoeye sensor beam, which signals the

frame grabber to begin image acquisition

and inspection. Image-processing software

triggers the two FireWire cameras to acquire

2-Mpixel images of the container and send

them to the PC for processing. A downstream

reject station removes containers that fail.

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O c t o b e r 2 0 1 0 V I S I O N S Y S T E M S D E S I G N w w w . v i s i o n - s y s t e m s . c o m34

S P O T L I G H T on Market Opportunities

The VisionPro software triggers the two Flea2 cameras to acquire

a 2-Mpixel image of the ice cream container and sends the image

across the 1394b connection to the PC’s memory, where the image-

processing algorithms take over (see Fig. 4).

“VisionPro has all the most common algorithms,” says Dannay,

“but we typically only use a few algorithms for the application

software, depending on what the customer needs. They want to be

able to train the system on new product without having to understand

the underlying algorithms. With that in mind, we typically supply

barcode and Data Matrix reading tools; edge tools to check label

skew; and PatMax to do geometric pattern searches of the artwork

that identifi es the ice cream fl avor.

FIGURE 4. A touchscreen display shows the images and comparison

to skew settings and the recipe set by the production operator.

The SureLabel system is designed in three

parts: an enclosure for the camera, optics,

lights, and photoeye trigger; followed by

a rejector mechanism and accumulator; and

concluding with the computer station,

which also holds the PLC.

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“We also included a histogram tool because

this system can look at color variation, too,

although this client isn’t using that function-

ality today,” he notes. “Then we label the

algorithms in ways the customer will under-

stand. For instance, they don’t want a barcode

or Data Matrix tool, they want a UPC lookup

tool because that’s the language they’re used

to. In other cases, we may knit two or three

image-processing algorithms together to do a

specifi c function for the customer.”

After VisionPro has analyzed the images

and compared the fi ndings to skew settings

and the recipe set by the production operator,

the PC sends a pass/fail message across an Eth-

ernet connection to a neighboring Micrologix

1400 PLC located inside the same stainless-

steel enclosure as the PC and Hope Industrial

Systems 17-in. touchscreen display (see Fig. 4).

In addition to controlling the downstream

reject actuator, the PLC also tracks the move-

ment of each carton as it passes through

the inspection work cell based on readings

from the BEI hollow shaft Optical Express

encoder. When a failed container reaches the

reject mechanism, the PLC sends a 24-VDC

signal to the actuator, and the carton is

plucked from the line.

“When we move this system to the larger

facility in Indiana, we expect to connect

the system to the plant network to automate

the recipe selection and reduce the need

for operator oversight,” explains MVC’s

Dannay. “The system’s a ‘go,’ we’re just wait-

ing on the customer.”

Allen BradleyMilwaukee, WI, USAwww.rockwellautomation.com

Allison Park GroupAllison Park, PA, USAwww.apgvision.com

BEI Industrial EncodersGoleta, CA, USAwww.beiied.com

CognexNatick, MA, USAwww.cognex.com

Goyo OpticalAsaka, Japanwww.goyooptical.com

Hope Industrial SystemsRoswell, GA, USAwww.hopeindustrial.com

Keyence Corporation of AmericaWoodcliff Lake, NJ, USAwww.keyence.com

Machine Vision ConsultingWestborough, MA, USAwww.machinevc.com

Point Grey ResearchRichmond, BC, Canadawww.ptgrey.com

Smart Vision LightsMuskegon, MI, USAwww.smartvisionlights.com

Company Info

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