Individual inspection of folding cartons to identify those not meeting stringent quality criteria is vital for ensuring brand reputation, integrity and consumer safety, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.

Bradley Bate, MD of Alliance Machinery, local representative for Focusight Technology, recommends the use of the company’s FS Shark-650 system that inspects up to 60 000 cartons/hour (90 to 700g/m2) at a maximum speed of 250m/min.

Using this system, operators can automatically switch between a friction and suction feeding system at the press of a button. The first system supports uniform cartons while the second system has a suction head that manages interval feeding of variably-shaped cartons and prevents scuffing and scratching.

The Shark-650 is designed with two rejection units that separate packaging in a range of substrates (up to 700g/m2) by air blow and plate rejection. Set criteria include colour variation; print, die-cutting, foil and varnish register; waste; as well as missing and moving braille and embossing.

A user-friendly interface allows easy configuration of software to support three channels of checking and enables operators to set up and save various templates, parameters and tolerance levels in different regions to select critical/non-critical areas. Furthermore, a module that converts RGB to LAB readings; supports colour difference inspections.

Bradley points out that powerful software algorithm permits sensitive defect detection while maintaining high yields. A special algorithm enables low-contrast detection in a large area less than 20DN. Operators can add different layers to match the different image processing algorithms when they are creating templates by layer.

They can also view images from all four cameras simultaneously during the production run and automatically align each image to key register points to adjust for small tilts.

‘Apart from providing consistent and stringent quality control for ultra-sensitive pharmaceutical packaging, statistical reports are fed to management allowing for further fine-tuning of production processes,’ Bradley sums up. ‘The Shark-650 can store 3 000 jobs with defect pictures and reports. It also enables quick job changeovers, including the make-ready of a master within 15 minutes.’