Innomech develops inspection system for glass manufacturer

The system will allow specialised glass manufacturer Cera Dynamics to further improve the standard of its glass and increase output to meet fast-growing demand from China and Taiwan.

The final inspection of glass frit or powder is a process that Cera Dynamics has traditionally done manually at a rate of approximate 25kg per hour. However, Innomech claims that its new automated system, which observes glass as it falls off the end of a conveyor belt, will allow Cera Dynamics to inspect a maximum of 100kg per hour.

In use, a vibratory feeder with a 200kg capacity spreads the powdered material onto a moving belt, which is then illuminated under white light and imaged with a line-scan camera fitted with a colour filter to detect any over-sized particles.

Peter Woods, programme manager at Innomech, told The Engineer: ‘A specially designed illumination system was developed to give the optimum discrimination of acceptable frit from unacceptable particles, and at the same time give a highly uniform distribution of light across the entire width of the curtain of product at sufficient intensity to permit inspection at a feed rate of 100kg per hour.’