Pack Code Traceability During High-Speed Container Grouping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods fail to trace individual blister packs and stickpacks within containers due to high production velocities and packaging machine configurations, making it impossible to read or identify product codes before grouping and inserting them into boxes.
Innovation Solution
A method and system using conveyor systems and detection stations to acquire product codes, form groups, and apply tracing codes to containers based on detected codes, enabling traceability of specific packs within containers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If high production velocity is maintained in packaging machines, then productivity is improved, but the ability to read or identify reference codes on packages deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The reference codes are applied to the packages during the packaging process itself, before the packages are grouped and inserted into containers. This preliminary application of codes allows them to be detected and recorded by the system while the packages are still in a controlled environment, enabling traceability without slowing down the high-velocity packaging operation.
2Ease of operation
If packages are grouped and inserted into containers without individual code identification, then ease of operation is improved, but the ability to trace specific packs within containers deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses detection stations to read the reference codes on individual packages as they pass through, and this information is fed back into a memory system that associates the codes with the container into which the packages are inserted. This feedback mechanism enables traceability of specific packs without complicating the physical grouping and container insertion process.
3Productivity
If reference codes are applied on packages at high speed, then productivity is improved, but the reliability of code acquisition and product identification deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces mechanical or manual code reading methods with automated detection stations that use optical or electronic sensors to rapidly capture and identify reference codes. This substitution enables reliable code acquisition at high packaging speeds by using non-contact, high-speed detection technology rather than mechanical reading processes.
Data Source
Figure 1~3
AI summary
The method for managing the serialisation and tracing of packs of products, which are to be gathered in groups of packs to be inserted in respective containers, comprises: picking up, from a first conveyor means (1), a first series of packs of products (P) for which a respective series of reference codes (a, b, c) present thereon has been collected and memorised, and forming a group (P1, P2) of packs of products internally of a seat (21, 22) of the second conveyor means (2), memorising the position of the seat (21, 22) on the second conveyor means (2) and transferring the seat (21, 22) to a transfer station (ST); using a third conveyor means (3) for transferring a container (A1, A2) into the transfer station (ST) and transferring the group (P1, P2) of packs of products for which the reference codes have been memorised from the seat (21, 22) of the conveyor means (2) into the container (A1, A2). The method further comprises, before or after transferring the group (P1, P2) of packs of products into the second container (A1, A2), applying on the container (A1 A2) a tracing code bearing a datum representing the reference codes which had been memorised and which are present in the packs of products of the second group (P1, P2) of packs of products.