Date recognition from the bottom of beer cans moving at a speed of 72,000 cans per hour

In April 2022, machine vision system for recognition of dates from the bottom of the cans has been implemented at an industrial brewery for premium beer and cider brands.

The system performs:

1. Recognition of the bottling date;
2. Recognition of the expiry date;
3. Comparison of recognised dates with current production set values;
4. Outputting of signal for automatic rejection of manufactured products when the dates have not been recognised or when dates deviate from set production values.

The recognition of dates is performed for the cans that cross the control area at a rate of 72,000 cans per hour with the processing time of a single can by the algorithm of less than 50 milliseconds.

For the minimization of external factors influence, the system is equipped with 2 machine vision light sources – coaxial and dome lights.

For managing the quality control process and reviewing recognition results, the specialised operator workstation has been developed.

The implementation of this system at the production facility enables to eliminate such crucial risks for food and beverage industry as incorrectly printed dates and dates that have been incorrectly placed.