Staggered, Two-Stage Inspection Concept
The high performance of the vision inspection solution has already led to further process and quality assurance measures being implemented. For example, the evaluation of inspection data at the goods receiving stage enabled the company to identify supply-side fluctuations in quality, leading to a realignment within Purchasing. This was made possible by the statistics module on the METTLER TOLEDO vision system, which detects error patterns and highlights common defects in the glass crucibles to operators and production managers.
METTLER TOLEDO developed a two-stage inspection concept for Maxim's quality control on the glass crucibles. First, the glass crucibles are isolated and fed along a single lane to the inspection system. The initial camera module inspects the base for glass-in glass contaminants, followed by two alternating camera modules that check either for possible glass splinters and chipped tops or the sealing face of the thread, depending on the glass type.
Faulty crucibles are immediately removed from the production line using a pusher reject device. Around 5,000 to 6,000 glass crucibles per hour undergo this quality control prior to filling, verifying that only flawless glass crucibles proceed to filling.
