Packaged Item Inspection Using UV Reflected Light Contrast

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing inspection devices for packaged items require special packaging materials with ultraviolet light absorbing functions, increasing manufacturing costs and facing challenges in achieving accurate inspections due to low contrast in fluorescence images.

Innovation Solution

A packaged item inspection device that uses ultraviolet light to irradiate the packaged item, captures regularly reflected light images, and determines defects based on the differences in brightness between normal and damaged areas, without requiring special packaging materials.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If packaging material with ultraviolet light absorbing function is used for inspection, then inspection capability is improved, but manufacturing cost increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinspection capabilityVSAvoidmanufacturing cost

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces expensive special packaging materials with UV absorbing functions with ordinary packaging materials that do not have these special properties. The inspection system achieves reliable detection using standard materials combined with appropriate imaging technology, eliminating the need for costly specialized materials.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #27Cheap short-living objects (Disposable)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent substitutes the chemical/optical property-based inspection method (relying on UV absorbing materials and fluorescence) with an imaging-based detection method. By using imaging technology to directly capture and analyze the packaging material's appearance, the system eliminates the need for special UV reactive materials while maintaining inspection reliability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Reliability

If fluorescence image is used for inspection, then damaged location can be identified, but image contrast is low and boundary is blurred

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedamaged location identificationVSAvoidimage contrast

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent utilizes the natural color/luminance differences between damaged and non-damaged packaging materials in reflected light images. By capturing images in the visible spectrum where these natural contrasts exist, the system achieves clear boundary definition without requiring fluorescence enhancement that causes blurring.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #32Color changes

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of using fluorescence emission (active light generation) for detection, the patent employs reflected light imaging (passive light detection). This inversion of the inspection approach captures the natural optical properties of the packaging material, providing sharper images with better contrast at damage boundaries.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

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

Enables accurate detection of tears or breaks in packaging materials with higher precision, suppressing manufacturing costs and improving inspection accuracy by utilizing regularly reflected light images.

Implementation Method 1

an imaging unit configured to perform imaging of the ultraviolet light reflected from the packaged item

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectReflection: Reflection

Data Source

PatentEP4556893A1Packaged item inspection device and packaged item inspection method

Publication Date: 2025.05.21 CKD CORP

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AI summary

There is provided, for example, a packaged item inspection device that enables a break, a tear or the like of a packaging material to be detected with higher accuracy without using any special packaging material having an ultraviolet absorbing function. A packaged item 1 as an inspection object is obtained by shrink-wrapping or stretch-wrapping an object item to be packaged, with a packaging material. The object item to be packaged has an outer surface that is rougher than an outer surface of the packaging material. The packaged item inspection device performs imaging of ultraviolet light reflected from the packaged item 1 in the state that the packaged item 1 is irradiated with ultraviolet light, and determines whether the packaging material in the packaged item 1 is defective or non-defective, based on regularly reflected light image data with regard to the packaged item 1, which is obtained by this imaging. In the regularly reflected light image data, a damaged location is relatively dark, whereas a normal location is relatively bright. A relatively large difference in contrast is provided between the normal location and the damaged location. This configuration accordingly enables a break, a tear or the like of the packaging material to be detected with higher accuracy, without using any special packaging material having the ultraviolet absorbing function.