Patent Application
20050263443
This invention relates generally to the manufacture of containers and more particularly to a method and apparatus for inspecting containers.
In the manufacture of glassware, such as glass containers, various anomalies or variations can occur that affect commercial desirability of the containers. These anomalies, termed “commercial variations,” can involve dimensional characteristics of the container such as the container finish, surface characteristics that can affect acceptable operation of the container, such as surface variations at the container sealing surface, or variations such as stones or checks within the container finish, sidewall or bottom.
It is conventional practice to mold indicia on each container indicative of the mold of origin of the container for inspection and quality control purposes. Some container inspection systems utilize a starwheel-type conveyor for accepting containers in sequence from a feed conveyor and transporting the containers through a series of inspection stations. One or more inspections may take place for each container at each station of the apparatus. The term “inspection” is used in its broadest sense to encompass any optical, electro-optical, mechanical or electrical observation or engagement with the container to measure or determine a potentially variable characteristic, including but not necessarily limited to mold codes and commercial variations.
To verify the accuracy and reliability of the inspection apparatus, containers having known commercial variations have been manually fed through the inspection apparatus by an operator. As these containers with known commercial variations pass through the inspection apparatus, the operator could determine if the inspection apparatus identified the known commercial variations. After the containers with the known commercial variations were discharged from the inspection apparatus, the operator would manually retrieve each of the containers to prevent them from proceeding downstream with other containers that have passed inspection. Manually feeding, monitoring and retrieving the sample containers increases down time of the inspection apparatus and is inefficient.
A method and apparatus for inspecting containers including a plurality of container inspection devices disposed along an inspection path direct a plurality of test containers having known characteristics, preferably including at least commercial variations, through the inspection path so that the test containers can be inspected at each of the container inspection devices to obtain information indicative of the characteristics found in the test containers, and correlate that information with the known characteristics in the containers. The apparatus preferably includes a test container conveyor loop connected at one end to the inspection path upstream of the inspection devices, and at its other end to the conveyor path downstream of the inspection devices. A controller preferably substantially automates a test cycle to provide test containers in the inspection path, receive from the inspection devices information relating to the characteristics detected in the test containers, and return the test containers from the inspection path to the test container conveyor loop.
In one presently preferred embodiment, diverters at each end of the test container conveyor loop direct containers from the test container conveyor loop into the inspection path upstream of the inspection devices, and after inspection, direct the containers from the inspection path back onto the test container conveyor loop. A controller preferably operates the diverters to selectively permit containers on the test container conveyor loop to enter the inspection path, monitors the output of the inspection devices, and correlates the output of the inspection devices with the known characteristics of the test containers to help determine the accuracy of the inspection devices.
The controller may also monitor, be responsive to, and control a conveyor that feeds containers to the inspection path, a reject mechanism downstream of the inspection path to remove containers that did not pass inspection, and an outfeed conveyor which carries containers away from the inspection path. In this manner, the controller can automatically stop the infeed conveyor, start the test container conveyor to feed test containers into the inspection path, disable the reject mechanism to prevent test containers from being rejected, and divert containers from the inspection path back onto the test container conveyor. This process may be manually instituted by an operator, or may be automatically instituted by the controller at set intervals as desired to verify the operation of the container inspection devices.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, appended claims and accompanying drawings in which:
Referring in more detail to the drawing,
The container inspection apparatus 10 includes an infeed conveyor 18 having a drive mechanism 20, such as an electric motor, that supplies production containers 12 to an inspection conveyor or inspection path 22 passing by or through a plurality of inspection stations 24. The inspection path 22 may include a rotary starwheel type conveyor to move containers through angularly spaced inspection stations 24, or any other arrangement including a linear conveyor and in-line inspection stations. At each inspection station 24 one or more inspection devices 26 are provided to inspect one or more characteristics of each container, and provide an output indicative of the information obtained from the inspection. The inspection path 22 leads to a reject mechanism 28 that removes from the inspection path 22 those containers that did not pass one or more inspections. Containers that passed all inspections are permitted to pass by the reject mechanism 28 to an outfeed conveyor 30 for transfer to subsequent processing stations. In one presently preferred implementation, the container inspection apparatus is constructed and arranged as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,751, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The invention also can be implemented in non-loop-type inspection systems, such as the linear inspection system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,355.
To verify the operation of the inspection devices, the test container conveyor loop 14 is disposed in parallel with the inspection path 22 to selectively provide a plurality of test containers 16 having known characteristics, such as commercial variations, mold indicia or other inspected feature or aspect, into the inspection path 22. (It will be appreciated that the term “parallel,” when referring to conveyor 14, is used in the functional sense in that conveyor 14 receives containers from a point downstream of at least a portion of inspection path 22 and returns the containers to another point upstream of at least a portion to the inspection path. The term “parallel” is not used in the geometric sense that any portion of conveyor 14 is necessarily extending in the same direction as and equidistant from path 22.) The test container conveyor 14 is operably connected with the inspection path 22 upstream of the inspection stations 24 through an infeed gate 32 at one end of the test container conveyor 14, and at the other end of the test container conveyor 14 through an outfeed gate 34 downstream of the inspection stations 24 to permit retrieval of test containers 16 that have passed through the inspection apparatus 10. The test container conveyor 14 includes a drive mechanism 36, such as an electric motor, which is selectively operable to drive the conveyer 14 only when needed to provide test containers 16 into the inspection path 22 and retrieve test containers 16 from the inspection path 22.
The infeed gate 32 preferably includes a diverter 40 moveable between first and second positions. In its first position (shown in solid line in
In the embodiment shown in
An inspection system controller 50 and information processor communicates with the inspection devices 26 to receive and process information obtained from the inspection devices 26 as containers are inspected, and selectively controls the infeed conveyor drive 20, test container conveyor drive 36, infeed and outfeed gates 32, 34 (diverters 40, 42), and the reject mechanism 28. During inspection of production containers 12, the infeed conveyor drive 20 is activated to advance production containers 12 on the infeed conveyor 18 toward the inspection path 22. The infeed gate diverter 40 is disposed in its first position permitting production containers 12 on the infeed conveyor 18 to pass through the infeed gate 32 to the inspection path 22. The reject mechanism 28 is activated so that production containers 12 which do not pass inspection may be rejected and removed from the stream or supply of containers. The outfeed gate diverter 42 is disposed in its first position permitting production containers 12 that pass the reject mechanism 28 to proceed to the outfeed conveyor 30.
During the inspection of the production containers 12, the inspection system controller 50 receives and process information from the inspection devices 26 to, among other things, determine if a production container 12 has commercial variations falling outside of predetermined limits, preferably programmed or otherwise recorded in or accessible by the controller. If the controller 50 detects or determines that a production container 12 has commercial variations falling outside of the predetermined limits, the controller 50 sends a signal to the reject mechanism 28 to cause the reject mechanism 28 to remove that container from the inspection path so that the container does not reach the outfeed conveyor 30 and is not transported to downstream processing stations.
When it is desired to initiate a test container challenge of the inspection apparatus 10, to determine if the inspection devices 26 are functioning properly, an operator can manually initiate a test cycle, an operator can initiate a test cycle through the controller 50, or the controller 56 can automatically initiate a test cycle at set intervals or randomly, at desired. To conduct a test cycle of the container inspection apparatus 10, the infeed conveyor drive 20 is deactivated to prevent production containers 12 from reaching the inspection path 22. The infeed gate diverter 40 is moved to its second position, the reject mechanism 28 is disabled or turned off, the outfeed gate diverter 42 is moved to its second position, and the test container conveyor drive 36 is activated to advance the test container conveyor 14 and move test containers 16 thereon through the infeed gate 32 and into the inspection path 22. Again, all of these steps can be performed manually by the operator, or, more preferably, by the controller 50 either at the operators direction or without operator intervention as determined by the controller 50.
During a test cycle, test containers 16 from the test container conveyor 14 are moved through the infeed gate 32 and into the inspection path 22 where the test containers 16 pass through the inspection stations 24 for inspection by the inspection devices 26. Information obtained from the inspections is fed from the inspection devices 26 to the controller 50. The test containers 16 pass through the reject mechanism 28 which is disabled, and are directed back onto the test container conveyor 14 by the diverter 42 at the outfeed gate 34. The controller 50 receives, and preferably processes and displays the information obtained from the inspection devices 26 which is preferably indicative of at least the commercial variations detected by the inspection devices 26 during that test cycle. Either the operator, the controller 50, or both, correlate the information received from the inspection devices 26 with the known commercial variations of the test containers 16 to determine if the inspection apparatus 10 is operating satisfactorily. The controller 50 may have information relating to each test container programmed or otherwise recorded in or accessible by the controller 50 so that the controller can compare the known commercial variations with those detected during a particular test cycle.
When the test cycle is complete and it is desired to resume inspection of production containers, the infeed gate diverter 40 is moved to its first position, the infeed conveyor drive 20 is turned on, the reject mechanism 28 is turned on, the outfeed diverter 42 is moved to its first position, and the test container conveyor drive 32 is deactivated. Production containers 12 on the infeed conveyor 18 are fed through the infeed gate 32 into the inspection path 22, pass through the reject mechanism 28 if the production containers 12 passed inspection, and thereafter pass through the outfeed gate 34 and onto the outfeed conveyor 30. With the test container conveyor drive 36 deactivated, the test containers 16 are not advanced towards the inspection path 22.
Desirably, since the test cycle can be initiated through the controller 50, an operator remote from the location of the container testing apparatus 10 can initiate a test cycle by instructing the controller 50 to do so. The controller 50 preferably has an output that provides information to a display 52 for an operator, who can but need not be remote from the inspection apparatus, so that the operator can monitor the results of the test cycle. Desirably, the information processed by the controller 50 during inspection of production containers 12 as well as during a test cycle, can be communicated by the controller 50 to a display or other receiver anywhere in the world via the internet or other preferably real-time connection permitting remote monitoring of the container inspection apparatus 10. Likewise, a signal can be provided to the controller 50 from remote locations to initiate a test cycle, or for other operative control of the controller and inspection apparatus.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the preceding description of preferred embodiments of the invention is provided in terms of description, and not limitation. Modifications and substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit and broad scope of the invention, as set forth in the appended claims. For example, without limitation, the controller may also selectively operate a drive mechanism for the outfeed conveyor to turn off the outfeed conveyor during a test cycle, since during a test cycle containers are not fed to the outfeed conveyor. Of course, still other modifications and substitutions may be made to the presently preferred embodiment of the test container apparatus and the container testing method set forth herein.
