All in a Day’s Work: Cognex Vision Satisfies a Sweet Tooth

As the manufacturer of a popular chocolate wafer, it is your duty to ensure that its legions of fans are satisfied. And when your product is a 100 year old chocolate wafer treat known as the 'Mannerschnitte”, or “Neapolitaner”, that responsibility becomes even greater. To experience market success, products must be in perfect condition and possess a uniform level of quality throughout. Thanks to the In-Sight 5400 vision sensor, Manner AG is now able to ensure that all of its wafers are thoroughly inspected before they leave the plant for distribution.

The world’s largest oven
With an annual capacity of 8,000 tons of flat wafers and biscuits, the world's largest wafer oven is located in Perg, Austria. Enormous quantities of product are processed by almost 100 employees, who ensure that the portions are packed individually before being placed in cardboard boxes. Within the food industry, hygiene is of the utmost importance, so it’s vital that products are packed in the correct, completely airtight packaging.

Tough customers
Chocolate lovers are a discriminating breed. If they anticipate a mouth-watering hazelnut flavor but instead receive a taste marred by packaging defects, the company could lose customers. And complaints mean consequences, including financial repercussions and bad publicity. Products supplied to the consumer must be 100% defect-free. This applies not only to products branded with the Manner name, but also to the products being produced on behalf of other large customers, an important market segment. 

100% defect-free – how?
Manner needed a new solution to cope with increased quality demands. It was decided that a vision system would provide the answer, but it was clear that this vision system would face the daunting challenge of meeting the following requirements:

- Reliable inspection of all packaging at production speeds of up to 400 packages per minute
- Flexibility to cope with many different product variants 
- Easy operation and programming
- Ability to use the new checking station to make the whole production process smoother 

A variety of different characteristics needed to be inspected simultaneously and easily taught to the system:

- 25 different packaging color variants
- 100 texts in different languages printed on the packaging
- Inspection of label positioning 
- Ensure that the packaging is dent- and defect-free
- Verify the presence of picture and text

Integrating the solution in record time
Schmachtl Gmbh in Linz, Austria, a Partner System Integrator (PSI) of Cognex, impressed Manner with the results of its feasibility study performed for the Perg plant. The solution utilized the Cognex In-Sight® 5400 vision sensor to keep the design of the inspection station simple, allowing for an internal mechanical set-up and installation by Manner’s own engineering/maintenance team. To name a few of its varied functions, the inspection station verifies whether the label is equally positioned from the left and right edge of the packaging, whether there are dents or defects in the packaging, and whether the correct picture and text is on the correct packaging.

The order was placed at the end of April in 2006, and by the end of May, the quality control station was already in place. To ensure operator and production efficiency from the start, the Linz-based company had already programmed the customer-specific vision tasks for a wide range of packaging variants. The extent of the different component characteristics meant that easy operator manipulation of the inspection station was crucial.

Product location regardless of orientation and position 
The high-performance In-Sight 5400 vision sensor combined with the capabilities of PatMax® vision software enables Manner to check many different characteristics quickly and simultaneously. Due to the presence of Patmax in this application, individual packages of Manner wafers can flow through the inspection station on the conveyor belt without being fixed in a particular position. The vision system also detects any faults in the packaging supplied by external suppliers, thus allowing Manner to eliminate the occurrence of rejected products. 

12 “windows” ensure no defect is left unseen
In order to harness the In-Sight 5400’s processing power to achieve the high levels of production output the company is aiming for; Schmachtl divided the packaging image area into 12 individual PatMax windows. This allows the vision system to detect packaging characteristics more quickly, more flexibly, and more efficiently. Each of the 12 PatMax windows works to ensure that the finished products are free of specific defects. For example, two windows are used solely to determine whether the packaging is properly centered. Another field is used for pattern matching, which might determine the presence of the picture of the hazelnut or check the corners for dents and tears.

5% production increase and no more complaints
Simple to use and easy to operate, the vision system’s various characteristics are easily programmed by Manner employees. This enables the staff to react quickly to various types of error. For example, if a package is dented, it may become jammed further down the production line, resulting in additional unnecessary product rejects. Now, incidents like this are at a minimum and the company is able to guarantee that its packaging is airtight and flawless in appearance. The most noticeable effect of this improvement is that consumer complaints have vanished, in turn eliminating the potential cost incurred in finding and correcting the problem. By keeping interruptions in the production flow to a minimum, productivity has increased by approximately 5%. 

Reinhard Gassner, manager of the Perg plant, commented on his new packaging system; "If the conveyor belt is operating at a speed of, for example, 270 packages per minute, then just a few seconds of defective production means several dozen rejected packages. This is not just a question of cost; it also has a negative effect on the production flow. Problems like this are now in the past."

Visionary production
Based on the success of the first inspection stations, the company is now researching whether other areas of production might also benefit from a vision system. The 100% quality checking of each package has helped to guarantee large customer orders and has improved quality certification. Within Manner AG, the Perg plant has become recognized as a premier innovator of all types of technology, largely due to its expertise in combining the best engineering with effective vision technology. 

About Cognex
Cognex designs, develops, produces and markets machine image processing systems and computers, which allow machines to "see intelligently". Cognex is the world leader in machine-based image processing systems with over 350,000 machine IP systems already sold, representing a cumulative turnover of over USD $2 billion since founding of the company in 1981. The Modular Vision Systems division of Cognex, based in Natick, Massachusetts, is a specialist in machine-based image processing systems used for automated manufacturing and quality assurance of single components. The Surface Inspection Systems Division with its HQ in Alameda, California, concentrates on high-speed surface control of web materials made of metal, paper and plastic. Besides the HQ in Natick, Massachusetts, the company has other branches in North America, Japan, Europe and Southeast Asia. The headquarters of Cognex Europe is based at Rueil-Malmaison near Paris. Further information can be found on our website at http://www.cognex.com.