Bottle Detection Lighting Unit with Radial Luminance Zones
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for detecting elevations and depressions on bottles, such as molding seams and embossings, are unreliable due to low-contrast and irregular light reflections, especially in profiled bottle surfaces, leading to incomplete detection and requiring additional inspection devices and space in labeling machines.
Innovation Solution
A lighting unit with a light screen featuring a stripe pattern of varying luminance, where dark and bright areas alternate gradually, enhances image contrast and facilitates the detection of molding seams and embossings by creating reflection zones of varying brightness, allowing for sharper definition and more compact imaging of vertical structures, and a camera system that captures images from various rotational positions to determine the actual rotational position of the bottle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a uniformly illuminated lamp shade is used to examine the bottle surface, then the illumination is even, but the detection of molding seams and embossings is unreliable due to low-contrast reflections
Solution Approach 1:
The light screen is divided into multiple radial zones with different luminance characteristics. The central region has a first luminance level while the peripheral region has a second luminance level, creating local quality variations that generate high-contrast reflections at the bottle's molding seams and embossings, thereby improving detection reliability while maintaining even illumination coverage.
2Ease of operation
If a camera is positioned for horizontal viewing to capture the bottle surface, then the view is direct, but embossings in the shoulder area are located outside the lamp reflection zone
Solution Approach 1:
The light screen emits light in multiple radial directions rather than a single horizontal plane. This radial illumination pattern extends the effective reflection zone to include the bottle's shoulder area, allowing the camera to capture embossings in this previously inaccessible region while maintaining direct horizontal viewing geometry.
3Device complexity
If the light reflection is examined for irregularities to detect molding seams, then the method is simple, but only a portion of the molding seam can be detected
Solution Approach 1:
The light screen is segmented into multiple radial zones with distinct luminance levels. This segmentation creates multiple reflection zones on the bottle surface, each capturing different portions of the molding seam. The combined information from these segmented zones enables complete detection of the entire molding seam circumference without increasing device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution reliably detects molding seams and embossings over a maximum area of the bottle wall, improving detection accuracy and reducing the need for additional inspection devices by providing a clear representation of the bottle's shoulder region, enabling precise alignment and efficient labeling processes.
Implementation Method 1
examining a lamp reflection formed on the bottle body for irregularities in various rotational positions of the bottle
Data Source
AI summary
A device for detecting elevations and/or depressions on bottles, in particular in a labeling machine, the device comprising a lighting unit with a light screen for generating a light reflection on a bottle to be examined and at least one camera for detecting the light reflection. By areas of varying luminance being formed on the light screen, molding seams can be reliably detected over a large area of the bottle wall and embossings can be located in various rotational positions of the bottle. The invention also relates to a method for applying the device.