Non-destructive X-ray inspection apparatus for food industry

Abstract: Inspection apparatus for glass vessels and/or cans for food industry,, composed of a static structure (11) comprising two modular units (13) mutually placed at 90° and placed at 45° with respect to the line for vessels (3); one unit (13) being equipped with a semi-panoramic emitter (15) and a sensor (7), the other unit (13) being equipped only with a sensor (7), equal to the sensor of the first unit (15). With said inspection structure with a single emitter (15) and two sensors (7) a 100% inspection is realized.

Description: The present invention deals with a non-destructive X-ray inspection apparatus for food industry, particularly for glass vessels and/or metal cans. It is known that, in the vast majority of cases, non-destructive X-ray inspection for glass vessel in food industry is carried out by single devices, located on one side of the row of said vessels to be inspected; said devices being substantially equipped with an emitter and a sensor between which the row of said vessels to be inspected moves. Similarly known is the fact that with such single devices a 90-95% inspection is obtained of the product contained therein, said deficiency being due to the shadow area projected by the concavity that is present, more or less importantly, in the vessel bottom. To be more precise, refer to a glass vessel containing jam or a similar product; the impairing concavity is the one on the bottom of these vessels; this projection overlaps the contaminating agents hiding them and making their recognition impossible. In many cases this result has been deemed, wrongly, enough, because an inspection valid only at 95% created a lot of problems, which it was attempted to solve through a few solutions, that proved however rather complicated and costly and not satisfactory enough. Among the above solutions, mention can be made of a 45°-slant on the vertical emitter pipe plan, solution that only generated another shadow area in another point with respect to the traditional inspection apparatus placed on one side; moreover, though mitigating the darkening, it did not solve the problem, often due to high vessel tolerances. Furthermore, it cannot be applied to cans. Another solution being studied in the United Kingdom provides two inspection apparata mutually placed at 90° on the vertical plan. This latter solution seems to benefit from a partial reduction of shadow areas, but it uses two inspection apparata and the system overall dimensions are rather big; the cost for the two apparata, their maintenance and the like are important cost elements that cannot be overlooked. Document DE 41 37 510 illustrates a scanning system for investigating test object passing on a transport path for unauthorised contents. The system contains a source of radiation emitting two fan-shaped beams toward two corresponding linear sensors. The angle between the plane of at least one beam and the transport direction differs from 90 deg. A signal processing device process the signals of the sensors in order to provide a tridimensional view of the scanned object. US 3 958 078 refers to an X-ray inspection apparatus for scanning articles containing food products. One of the embodiment illustrated provides for the presence of two independent X-ray sources coupled to corresponding sensors, the two scanning directions being mutually arranged at 90 deg. US 5 442 672 illustrates an apparatus for reconstructing a tridimensional image of an object. This apparatus provides as well the presence of two independent X-ray sources coupled to corresponding sensors, mutually arranged at 90 deg. Patent application EP 0 375 157 relates to an on-line X-ray inspection system comprising a source of X-rays providing a very thin beam of rays of general fan shape and, opposite to the X-ray source, a detector means in the form of a linear array of photo-sensitive diodes. Object of the present invention is solving the above-mentioned problem of removing the shadow area when inspecting packaged vessels, realizing an improved, simple and practical apparatus that allows easily obtaining the provided object of a complete inspection of sealed vessels. The inspection apparatus of the present invention is composed of a static structure comprising two modular units mutually placed at 90° and placed at 45° with respect to a feeding line for vessels to be inspected; a first one of said two units being equipped with a semi-panoramic emitter and an X-ray linear sensor, a second one of said two units being equipped only with a sensor, equal to said sensor of said first unit; said inspection structure with a single emitter and two sensors realizing a structure able to inspect 100% of a product contained in said vessels. The advantages of the apparatus of the invention are as follows: modularity: therefore, with the same performance a starting price (for the single module) is much less than the standard price, thus widening product markets; with two sensors a simultaneous failure thereof is statistically impossible, so that a user can go on working even in case one of the two sensors fails (inspecting 95% of the product); there are practically no problems with installation related costs; there are no costs for mechanical spare parts, being the structure substantially static with obvious maintenance advantages; there are no problems of space, thus complying with the food industry needs whose lines are almost always full and without spaces for apparata not provided for when designing. Further features and advantages will appear from the following detailed description of an embodiment of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings, provided as a non limiting example, in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of a prior art inspection apparatus, placed at 90° with respect to the line of vessels to be inspected; Fig. 2 is a schematic plan view of a prior art inspection apparatus, placed at 45° with respect to the line of vessels; Fig. 3 is a schematic sectional view of the apparatus in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a schematic plan view of an inspection apparatus according to a first embodiment of the invention; Fig. 5 is a schematic plan view of an inspection apparatus ; Fig. 6 is a section of a glass vessel with the typical bottom concavity. As appears from Figures 1 and 3, prior art inspection apparata are composed of a structure 1 bridging a row on glass vessels 3 to be examined that move thereunder. This structure includes a X-ray emitter 5 and a sensor 7, that collects rays emimtted by the emitter 5 and displays what has been inspected. If a glass vessel is taken into account, it can be clearly seen how the concavity 9 provided on the bottom of said vessel 3 impairs a complete inspection of the product in the vessel; should this concavity or internal projection 9 be missing, obviously there would be no problems. With the inspection apparatus of the invention shown in Fig. 4, instead, a static structure 11 is provided, composed of two modular units 13 placed at 90° one to the other and at 45° with respect to the feeding line of vessels 3 to be inspected. One of these two units 13 is equipped with a semi-panoramic emitter 15 and with a normal sensor 7, while the other unit is equipped only with the sensor 7 equal to the one in the first unit. The semi-panoramic emitter 15 is a source of radiation capable of emitting an X-ray beam having an aperture, on an horizontal plane, of at least 90° in order to cover both sensors 7. In the embodiment of the inspection apparatus shown in Fig. 5 which is not part of the invention both units 13 are each equipped with a standard emitter 5 and a sensor 7. It is clear that in this way shadow areas created by the concavity 9 of the vessels to be inspected, are removed, since the area not detected by a sensor will be detected by the other sensor at 90° with respect to the first one. It is clear that, in case of failure of one of these sensors 7, a user can go on working, if he deems it adequate, with only one of them, always getting a 95% inspection as was the case in prior art.

Claims: Non-destructive X-ray inspection apparatus for glass vessels and/or cans for food industry, comprising a feeding line for transporting said vessels and/or cans (3) through said apparatus and two scanning units (13) mutually placed at 90°, characterised in that : a first unit (13) is equipped with emitter means (15) for emission of an X-ray beam having an aperture, on an horizontal plane, of at least 90°, and with sensor means (7) facing said emitter means (15); a second unit (13) is equipped with sensor means (7), equal to said sensor means in said first unit and facing said emitter means (15); wherein said first and second units are modular units placed in relation to each other in such a manner that X-rays collected by said sensor means in said first modular unit and X-rays collected by said sensor means in said second modular unit are both emitted from said emitter means (15) and form an angle of 90° in relation to each other, and wherein said first and second modular units are placed in relation to said feeding line in such a manner that X-rays collected by said sensor means in said first modular unit and X-rays collected by said sensor means in said second modular unit intersect said feeding line at an angle of 45°, so that said vessels and/or cans passing on said feeding line are inspected along two perpendicular directions. Inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus is adapted to be used as a normal unitary structure for a 95% inspection using a single one of said modular units at 45° with respect to the line of vessels (3) to be examined, using said emitter means (15) and only one of said sensor means (7). Inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus with a single emitter and two sensors provides the capability to inspect 100% of a product contained in said vessels and/or cans. Inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said emitter means (15) comprises a semi-panoramic emitter.

Inventors: OCLEPPO RINALDO, OCLEPPO, RINALDO
Applicants: DYLOG ITALIA S P A, DYLOG ITALIA S.P.A.
Application year: 1997
Main classification: G01N23
IPC codes: G01N23, G01N33