AutoCoding Systems’ automatic print inspection solution, 4Sight, proved a great success with visitors to the recent PPMA Total Show. Demonstrations were held on the SICK stand where visitors could experience the speed of set-up and simplicity of use of the application.
Visitors to the SICK stand were interested to see how they could cost effectively incorporate a print inspection solution into their existing packaging line set-up to check presence, legibility and location of printed codes. Products not displaying legible codes in the correct location can quite often be subjected to expensive reworks, assuming they are spotted prior to leaving the factory. Obviously, the cost is considerably higher if the problem isn’t identified and the product actually makes it to our supermarket shelves. The 4Sight solution checks every product, even on high speed lines, to ensure the printed code meets the requirements expected. The application offers full flexibility allowing users to determine acceptable print quality tolerances and define what is considered a good read, bad read or no read on a per product basis.
The 4Sight software communicates directly with any brand of printer, with no requirement to “teach” the camera what to look for. All the processing is undertaken onboard the SICK camera where the 4Sight software resides meaning that no line-side PC is needed. The system can be set to differing levels of inspection, from print presence through to full OCR. There is a simple set-up process for camera position, set-up, focus, illumination and exposure time, with no requirement for operators to configure features or regions of interest. The software automatically adjusts to accommodate real-time message changes, such as date code and clock time.
Visitors were impressed with the speed of the application and how quickly it responded to changes in print quality, stopping the line immediately the quality dropped below the prescribed threshold.
