Quality inspection with capLAB

Quality inspection today
The majority of plastic beverage closures undergo quality inspection by inline camera systems. Vision inspection does not discover potential
functionality errors of a closure which can affect its performance during or after the application to the bottle. Some defects might create an error on the filling line (capping process). Each stop on a filling line can cause huge losses. The industry standard practice for checking the functionality of closures is to periodically take a specified quantity of caps to a laboratory and analyze them. This is time consuming so it is only done a few times each day. If defective closures are found during this process, the closures produced since the last laboratory check are normally scrapped. On the highest speed lines the quantity produced between laboratory checks can
exceed 1 million closures.

Quality inspection by capLAB
capLAB is an in-line, automatic integrated unit for testing the functionality of a closure’s tamper evident (TE) band. In optional combination with a vision inspection system which can select closures by cavity number, capLAB takes samples from the slitting / folding machine outfeed and measures in-line the pull-off strength of the closure’s TE band. The test frequency can either be set by quantity, e.g. every 100’000 caps, or time, e.g. every 3 hours. The closures to be tested can be selected randomly, according to the spindles of the slitting machine or by cavity number of the production mould and by quantity. In addition a test sequence can be triggered manually, e.g. at the start of a production shift.

capLAB can also be connected in-line to a system producing closures with molded TE bands rather than slit TE bands.