Patent ID: 7673498
Filing Date: 2010-03-09
Classification: B29C,B29L,G01M

Abstract:
1. A method for the inspection of the seal quality of packages sealed using heat seal equipment comprising at least two colliding sealing bodies comprising monitoring vibration of the at least two colliding sealing bodies during sealing of the packages and deciding seal quality of the packages based on said monitoring, wherein said method comprises: (i) acquiring data on the vibration of the at least two colliding sealing bodies during the sealing of the packages, (ii) calculating an average and distribution of at least one parameter characterizing the vibration of the at least two colliding sealing bodies using at least a selection of the data of step (i), (iii) calculating reference values for the at least one parameter characterizing said vibration using the average and distribution determined in step (ii), said reference values being associated with a minimal acceptable seal quality, (iv) acquiring data on the vibration of the at least two colliding sealing bodies during the sealing of a given package and determining values of the parameters characterizing the vibration during the sealing of said package, (v) comparing the values determined in step (iv) with the reference values in order to decide on the quality of said package, and (vi) continuously updating the calculated reference values in step (iii) in accordance with an evolution of the data on the average and distribution of the parameters in step (ii) characterizing the vibration of the colliding sealing bodies.