‘China is still one of the biggest markets for vision systems’

The intelligent sensors come with a three-dimensional eye which works with a robot on a manufacturing floor to carry out tasks by itself.

Bakery sector robot to decorate gingerbread

In this case, the robot is being used in the bakery sector to decorate gingerbread.

Michael Beising, CEO, EVT, whose clients include Bosch and Nestlé, told FoodProductionDaily, the sensors apply to 3D and thermal inspection as an addition to the firm’s standard products.

“The thermography is used for example, to detect wrong particles in chocolate or 3D to determine the outline of a package​,” he said.

“The technology is sold as components with a sensor and software as a ready-to-use system which can be integrated into the production line​.

“We still see China, as one of the biggest markets for vision systems, production quantities there are high and many of the QS tasks which are done right now by cheap labour, have to be done by vision systems, because they need a 100% inspection, and this can only be done by machine vision technology, never by humans.​”

With the EyeScan 3D, data evaluation is carried out with the EyeVision image processing software with a drag-and-drop programme.

For the robotguidance the 3D-positioning of the measuring object and its geometrical characteristics are detected. The position discrepancy is calculated and the corrected data is forwarded to the robot system.

EyeScan 3D can inspect the surface texture of gingerbread figures

The EyeScan 3D can inspect the surface of the objects, such as the surface texture of gingerbread figures.

Beising added due to the baking process, the gingerbread becomes slightly uneven and has to be measured again separately one by one.

The robot needs the orientation and height information for the subsequent sugar icing decoration of the pastry.

“EVT develops machine vision software and sensor systems for different industries. Our products read codes e.g. DMC, QR, BarCode, OCR, to determine the shape, color or measurement of a product​,” he said.

“They are used in RobotVision for pick and place or to fill the right candies at the right position in a candy box​.”

The next project for EVT is developing sensor fusion, which Beising said will give the customer ‘a much more powerful technology in many areas of inspection’.

“Combining a Bolometer with a 3D sensor and a grey camera means, the customer knows the product is in a good shape, with no particles in the product and he knows the product base on the Barcode to feed and track it with its the logistic system​,” he added.

“We are sure an early QS in all production steps will save a large amount of resources, because the error parts are detected as early as possible, so that no additional production steps are added to the part which saves energy but at the same time also resources, because the part can be eliminated from the rest of the production run​.”

Beising said demand for inspection systems is rising.

“We see there is a lot more to do and there are still uncovered areas in production without any quality inspection so we see this market will grow​,” he said.

The EVT Training and Qualification Center offers users of all levels training opportunities. The next one is on Friday, June, 26, from 10am-5pm in Karlsruhe, Germany.