Innovations for the Linatronic: three inspection modules in a single unit

Maximally accurate monitoring of the empty containers – that’s the task of the Linatronic empty-bottle inspector. And this has for years now been setting the relevant standards for the market concerned. But in order to ensure that the technology involved always reflects the very latest state of the art, as from next year there will be some design enhancements for the inspector.

The inspection function itself will in future be governed by an entirely innovative concept: the three inspection modules for sidewall, lateral neck finish and thread inspection have been grouped together into a single harmonised unit. The sidewall inspection function is now also handling lateral neck finish and thread inspection, and can be relied upon to detect chipping, cracks and roughness in the area of the neck finish. The containers are inspected by four cameras with maximised resolution.

Krones has changed the inspection technology itself over to DART 4.0: the new CMOS matrix cameras score highly in terms of innovative technology featuring a resolution four times higher. The operator-friendly DART 4.0 software for inspection and monitoring systems ensures accurate inspection results: with both returnable PET and glass containers, the erroneous rejection rate is extremely low at less than 0.3 per cent.

Yet another innovation: the 2D code detection capability for the test container programme, so far only available as an optional extra, has now been incorporated in the Linatronic as a standard feature. This version supersedes the test container programme with a transponder used hitherto. It enables multifunctional easy-to-produce test containers to be used, and is a simple, affordable solution for unambiguously assigning test bottles detected as faulty to the inspection unit.