JP5530745B2 - Inspection method, inspection apparatus, and inspection system for glass bottle - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for optically inspecting the presence or absence of defects in a glass bottle.

  Conventionally, methods for optically inspecting the state of transparent or translucent containers such as glass bottles and plastic bottles are well known. For example, Patent Document 1 below discloses a method for optically inspecting the shape of an annular neck ring formed at the mouth of a PET bottle.

  Specifically, the method of Patent Document 1 below irradiates a black light (near ultraviolet rays) from a light projecting unit disposed above a PET bottle toward a lower neck ring, and reflects the black light reflected there, Light is received by a camera disposed on the same side as the light projecting unit (above the PET bottle). And based on the image of the neck ring obtained by this, the quality of the shape is determined.

JP-A-2005-308441

  On the other hand, for glass bottles, defects such as cracks (cracks) may exist in the mouth part, and if such defects are overlooked, for example, when a cap is attached to the mouth part, cracks ( Deficiency) may occur. Therefore, in order to avoid such a situation, there is a demand for reliably detecting important defects such as cracks.

  In order to examine the presence or absence of such defects such as cracks, it is conceivable to apply the same method as in Patent Document 1 above to recognize the reflected component of the ultraviolet light irradiated to the mouth portion with a camera. However, in many cases, for example, in small-scale glass bottles and returnable bottles that are recycled, there are minute irregularities and surface scratches that do not pose any problems in use at the mouth. When ultraviolet light is irradiated to the mouth portion in such a state, the ultraviolet light is irregularly reflected by the irregularities and surface scratches, and important defects such as cracks that should be detected are detected separately from the irregularities. There is a problem that becomes difficult.

  This invention is made | formed in view of the above situations, and it aims at detecting the important defect which may exist in the mouth part of a glass bottle with a stable precision reliably.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is a method for optically inspecting the presence or absence of defects in a glass bottle, and irradiating infrared light from a light source toward the mouth of the glass bottle An imaging step of capturing infrared light emitted from the light source and reflected by the mouth portion into the imaging means, and imaging of the mouth portion based on the image taken by the imaging means. whether seen including a determination step of determining, in the determination step, an image of the obtained bottle mouth portion from said image pickup means into a plurality of areas, the brightness of the brightest imaged area within which a predetermined When it is higher than the threshold value, it is determined that a defect exists in the mouth portion (claim 1).

Further, the present invention is an apparatus for optically inspecting the presence or absence of a defect in the glass bottle, a light source for irradiating infrared light toward the mouth part of the glass bottle, and a mouth part irradiated from the light source. Imaging means that captures the infrared light reflected by the imaging means to image the mouth portion, and a determination means that determines the presence or absence of defects in the mouth portion based on the image captured by the imaging means , the determination means, When the image of the mouth portion obtained from the imaging means is divided into a plurality of regions, and the brightness of the brightest imaged region is higher than a predetermined threshold, there is a defect in the mouth portion It is characterized by determining ( Claim 4 ).

According to these inventions, an important defect such as a crack is generated by irradiating the mouth of the glass bottle with infrared light having a longer wavelength than ultraviolet light and visible light and relatively high transmittance. Is present in the mouth portion, the infrared light transmitted through the surface of the mouth portion and reflected by the defects such as cracks can be taken into the imaging means, and the presence of the defect can be clearly imaged. It is possible to properly determine the quality of the mouth portion based on the obtained image.
In addition, since the brightest imaged area is extracted from the image of the mouth area divided into a plurality of areas, and the brightness of the area is compared with a predetermined threshold value, when there is a defect such as a crack in the mouth area The presence of the defect that is imaged relatively brightly by reflection of infrared light can be reliably detected.

In the control method or control device of the present invention, the peak wavelength of infrared light emitted from the light source is preferably a value within the range of 800 to 900 nm (claims 2 and 5 ), more preferably 820. It is in the range of ˜850 nm (claims 3 and 6 ).

  According to this aspect, it is possible to accurately detect an important defect such as a crack present in the mouth portion, while clearly distinguishing it from minute unevenness and surface scratches that do not cause a problem in use.

Moreover, this invention is an inspection system which inspects the presence or absence of the defect of a glass bottle, Comprising: The upstream conveyor which supplies a glass bottle to the said inspection apparatus, The glass bottle inspected by the said inspection apparatus And a discharge device that removes the glass bottle determined to be defective by the inspection device from the downstream conveyor ( Claim 7 ).

  According to the present invention, while properly inspecting the mouth portion of the glass bottle with the above-described inspection apparatus, a series of operations including the work of glass bottle conveyance and sorting (sorting of good / bad) before and after that is automatically performed. The inspection efficiency of the glass bottle can be effectively improved.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably detect an important defect that may exist in the mouth portion of the glass bottle with stable accuracy.

It is a top view showing roughly the whole composition of the inspection system of the glass bottle concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view of a glass bottle. It is a front view which shows the structure of a throat inspection part roughly. It is a top view which shows the structure of a throat inspection part roughly. It is a front view which shows the structure of a heel bottom test | inspection part schematically. It is sectional drawing along the VI-VI line of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the control system of an inspection system. It is a figure for demonstrating the state which the crack has generate | occur | produced in the mouth part of the glass bottle. It is a figure for demonstrating the condition when imaging the mouth opening part shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the captured image of the mouth part shown in FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of a discharge device, (a) has shown the state by which the butting | butting part was abutted against the glass bottle, (b) has shown the state of the subsequent glass bottle. It is a table | surface which shows the result of the experiment conducted in order to confirm the effect of this invention.

(1) Overall Configuration FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing an overall configuration of a glass bottle inspection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The inspection system shown in this figure includes an inspection device 1 for examining the presence or absence of defects in the glass bottle B by imaging the glass bottle B to be inspected, an upstream conveyor 2 for supplying the inspection apparatus 1 with the glass bottle B, The downstream conveyor 3 that conveys the glass bottle B inspected by the inspection apparatus 1 in a predetermined direction, the discharge conveyor 4 branched from the downstream conveyor 3, and the glass bottle determined to be defective (has a defect) by the inspection apparatus 1 And a discharge device 5 for discharging B from the downstream conveyor 3 to the discharge conveyor 4.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the glass bottle B is made of a glass cylindrical body having an upper end opened and a lower end closed, and is used for filling liquids such as sake, beverages, and seasonings, for example. Is done. However, such liquid contents are filled after the inspection by the inspection system of this embodiment. That is, the inspection by the inspection system of the present embodiment is performed on the glass bottle B that is not yet filled with the contents.

  Further, a cap (not shown) is attached to the upper end portion of the glass bottle B in a later step. Below, the upper end part of the glass bottle B to which the cap is attached is referred to as the bottle opening part B1, and the bottom part on the opposite side is referred to as the bottle bottom part B2. In the illustrated glass bottle B, a screw-type cap is attached to the mouth opening B1. For this reason, a spiral projection R (see FIG. 8) for screwing a screw-type cap is formed in the mouth opening B1.

(1-1) Inspection Device As shown in FIG. 1, the inspection device 1 includes a pair of inspection conveyors 10 that sandwich and convey the glass bottle B carried from the upstream conveyor 2 from the left and right, and this inspection. The inspection part 15 and the bottom inspection part 20 for inspecting the state of the bottom part B1 and the bottom part B2 of the glass part B by taking an image of the glass part B in the middle of the conveyance by the conveyor 10, and each of these parts And a cover member 25 for darkening the inside.

  Each of the pair of inspection conveyors 10 includes a plurality of rollers 11 and a belt-like conveyor belt 12 spanned between the rollers 11. One of the rollers 11 is centered by a driving source (not shown). By being driven to rotate around, the conveyor belt 12 is driven to circulate in the direction of the solid arrow in the figure. Each roller 11 has a central axis (rotation center) in a vertical direction, and the conveyor belt 12 spanned by each roller 11 is circulated and driven in a posture in which the transport surface is in a vertical direction.

  The interval between the conveyor belts 12 in the pair of inspection conveyors 10 is set to be approximately the same as the width (diameter) of the glass bottles B so that the glass bottles B are sandwiched and held between the conveyor belts 12. It has become. Then, the glass bottles B are conveyed in the direction of the white arrow in the figure by driving the conveyor belts 12 at the same circulation speed while the glass bottles B are sandwiched between the conveyor belts 12. It has become.

  3 and 4 are diagrams schematically showing the configuration of the mouth opening inspection unit 15, FIG. 3 is a front view, and FIG. 4 is a plan view. As shown in these drawings, the mouth opening inspection unit 15 irradiates the glass bottle B held by the inspection conveyor 10 with infrared light from above, and emits infrared light from the light source 16. There is a mouth recognition camera 17 (corresponding to the imaging means according to the present invention) that images the mouth portion B1 of the received glass mouth B from above.

  The light source 16 is composed of, for example, a plurality of infrared LEDs arranged in a ring shape in plan view, and infrared light of a specific wavelength band is emitted from the infrared LEDs toward the mouth B1 of the glass bottle B. The Specifically, the infrared light emitted from the light source 16 is composed of near infrared rays in which the peak wavelength with the highest light intensity is set to a value relatively close to the visible light region (wavelength range of approximately 380 to 750 nm), In this embodiment, the peak wavelength is set to a value within the range of 800 to 900 nm.

  The mouth recognition camera 17 has a light receiving portion 17a for receiving infrared light irradiated from the light source 16 and reflected by the mouth portion B1, and the light receiving portion 17a has a main sensitivity in the visible light region. It is constituted by a normal CCD image sensor or CMOS image sensor having a distribution. As described above, the peak wavelength of infrared light emitted from the light source 16 is 800 to 900 nm, which is outside the visible light region (380 to 750 nm), but the wavelength range of 800 to 900 nm is in the visible light region. Since it is relatively close, the infrared light reflected by the mouth opening B1 can be received without any problem even if the above-described normal image sensor is used.

  That is, a wavelength range of 800 to 900 nm is sufficient for a normal image sensor having a main sensitivity distribution in the visible light region, not a special image sensor specialized for receiving infrared light. Generally, it has a high sensitivity. Therefore, even if the shed recognition camera 17 provided with the light receiving unit 17a made of such an image sensor is used, the image data of the shed B1 can be obtained without any problem.

  The image data of the lip portion B1 acquired by the lip recognition camera 17 is transmitted to a control unit 70 (FIG. 7) described later. And the presence or absence of the defect of the mouth opening B1 is determined through a predetermined calculation process based on the transmitted image data.

  FIG. 5 is a front view schematically showing the configuration of the bottom inspecting unit 20. As shown in this figure, the bottom inspection unit 20 includes a light source 21 that irradiates infrared light from below to a glass bottle B held on the inspection conveyor 10 and a bottle disposed above the inspection conveyor 10. The bottom recognition camera 22 is provided, and the infrared light irradiated from the light source 21 and transmitted through the glass bottle B is received by the bottom recognition camera 22, whereby image data of the bottom part B2 of the glass bottle B is obtained. It is supposed to be acquired. The image data on the bottom B2 is transmitted to the control unit 70, which will be described later, in the same manner as the image data on the bottom B1, and is used to determine whether the bottom B2 is good or bad.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the inspection apparatus 1 configured as described above includes a culm passage sensor 60 that detects that the glass culm B has passed, and a transport speed sensor 62 that detects the transport speed of the inspection conveyor 10. And are provided.

  The culm passage sensor 60 is disposed on the upstream side of the culm inspection unit 15 in the conveyance path (between the pair of inspection conveyors 10) of the glass culm B. The eyelid passing sensor 60 is formed of a so-called reflection type laser sensor, and includes a light projecting unit that irradiates a laser beam having a predetermined wavelength and a light receiving unit disposed on the same side as the light projecting unit. Then, when the glass bottle B passes through the installation section of the bottle passage sensor 60 in the transport process by the inspection conveyor 10, the laser light emitted from the light projecting section is reflected by the glass bottle B, and the reflected light is reflected. By receiving light at the light receiving portion, it is detected that the glass bottle B has passed.

  The conveyance speed sensor 62 is composed of a rotary encoder that generates a pulse at every predetermined rotation angle, and is attached to one of the plurality of rollers 11 provided in the inspection conveyor 10. Based on the encoder information of the roller 11 by the transport speed sensor 62, the circulation speed of the conveyor belt 12 (that is, the transport speed of the inspection conveyor 10) is detected.

(1-2) Upstream / Downstream Conveyor and Discharge Conveyor FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line VI-VI in FIG. As shown in the figure, each of the downstream conveyor 3 and the discharge conveyor 4 has conveyor belts 30 and 40 that are circulated and driven in a posture in which the transport surface is horizontally oriented. According to the circulation drive, the glass bottles B placed on the respective upper surfaces are individually conveyed in the direction perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 6 (the direction of the white arrow in FIG. 1). Each conveyor belt 30 and 40 is driven by being driven by a roller (not shown) like the inspection conveyor 10.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, the downstream conveyor 3 and the discharge conveyor 4 are adjacent to each other in the upstream in the width direction and are partitioned by a partition plate 35. The partition plate 35 has an opening 35a at a portion facing the discharge device 5, and the glass bottle B pushed out by the discharge device 5 can move from the downstream conveyor 3 to the discharge conveyor 4 through the opening 35a. It is like that.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the downstream conveyor 3 is provided with a culvert passage sensor 61 and a conveyance speed sensor 63 in the same manner as the inspection conveyor 10. That is, the passage of the glass bottle B conveyed by the downstream conveyor 3 is detected by the bottle passing sensor 61, and the conveyance speed of the downstream conveyor 3 is detected by the conveyance speed sensor 63. ing.

  In addition, although the detailed illustration is abbreviate | omitted about the upstream conveyor 2, it has the structure similar to the said downstream conveyor 3 and the discharge | emission conveyor 4, and it conveys in the state which mounted the glass bowl B on the upper surface.

(1-3) Discharge Device As shown in FIG. 6, the discharge device 5 includes a linear servo actuator 50 and an abutting portion 56 that is driven forward and backward by the actuator 50.

  The actuator 50 includes a linear motor 51, a cylinder rod 52 that moves forward and backward under the thrust of the linear motor 51, and a cylinder case 53 that holds the cylinder rod 52. By attaching the abutting portion 56, the abutting portion 56 is supported so as to be movable forward and backward.

  The linear motor 51 includes a mover 54 made of a permanent magnet built in a cylinder rod 52 and a stator 55 made of an electromagnet (coil) provided on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder case 53. 55 is supplied with a current from a power supply device (not shown). When a magnetic flux is generated around the stator 55 in accordance with the current supply to the stator 55, the mover 54 is made relative to the stator 55 by the interaction between the magnetic flux and the magnetic flux generated by the mover 54. A moving thrust is generated, and the movable element 54 and the cylinder rod 52 are driven in the axial direction by the thrust.

  The cylinder case 53 is provided with a linear sensor 64 (FIG. 7) that magnetically or electrically reads the axial position of the cylinder rod 52. The value detected by the linear sensor 64 is transmitted to a control unit 70 described later as information for controlling (feedback control) the position and speed of the cylinder rod 52 as intended.

  The abutting portion 56 is made of a member that is long in the vertical direction, and its lower portion is fixed to the tip of the cylinder rod 52 so that it can be moved forward and backward in the vicinity of the conveyance path of the downstream conveyor 3. Yes. A guide rod 58 is connected to the upper portion of the abutting portion 56, and the guide rod 58 is supported so as to be able to move forward and backward while being inserted through the bearing portion 59.

  Further, the abutting portion 56 is configured by a base member 56a made of a resin material or the like and a buffer member 56b made of a softer material (for example, polyurethane or the like) overlapped in the thickness direction. The cylinder rod 52 and the guide rod 58 are connected to one surface of the base member 56a, and the other surface of the base member 56a on the opposite side (that is, the surface close to the downstream conveyor 3). The buffer member 56b is attached.

  The discharge device 5 configured as described above operates when there is a glass bottle B determined to be defective by the inspection device 1. Specifically, the glass bottle B that is determined to be defective by any one of the mouth opening inspection unit 15 and the bottom inspection unit 20 of the inspection apparatus 1 is moved to the side of the discharge device 5 in the process of being conveyed by the downstream conveyor 3. Accordingly, the actuator 50 drives the abutting portion 56 in accordance with this, and the abutting portion 56 is abutted against the glass cage B, so that the glass cage B is discharged from the downstream conveyor 3 to the discharge conveyor 4. (See FIG. 11).

  The glass bottle B moved to the discharge conveyor 4 is transported to the downstream side by the discharge conveyor 4 and is sequentially accumulated at the downstream end of the conveyor.

(2) Control System FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a control system of the inspection system of this embodiment. The control unit 70 shown in this figure is a device for comprehensively controlling each part of the inspection system, and includes a known CPU, ROM, RAM, and the like.

  Various sensor values are input to the control unit 70. That is, the control unit 70 is electrically connected to the heel passage sensors 60 and 61, the conveyance speed sensors 62 and 63, and the linear sensor 64, and information detected by these sensors 60 to 64 is an electric signal. Are sequentially input to the control unit 70. And based on the input value etc., the said control unit 70 is various conveyors (upstream side conveyor 2, downstream side conveyors 3 ...), the spout inspection part 15, the bottom inspection part 20, discharge device 5, etc. Control the operation of each part.

  The more specific functions of the control unit 70 will be described. The control unit 70 includes, as main functional elements, a conveyor control unit 71, an imaging control unit 72, a pass / fail judgment unit 73, a discharge control unit 74, and A data storage unit 75 is included.

  The conveyor control unit 71 drives the upstream conveyor 2, the downstream conveyor 3, the discharge conveyor 4, and the inspection conveyor 10, and controls the conveying operation of the glass bottle B by each of these conveyors.

  The imaging control unit 72 controls imaging operations in the mouth opening inspection unit 15 and the bottom inspection unit 20. That is, the imaging controller 72 operates the light source 16 and the mouth recognition camera 17 of the mouth opening inspection unit 15 to image the mouth opening B1 at a predetermined timing when the glass bottle B passes through the mouth opening inspection unit 15. At the same time, the light source 21 and the bottom recognition camera 22 of the bottom inspection unit 20 are operated to image the bottom B2 at a predetermined timing when the glass reed B passes the bottom inspection unit 20.

  The timing at which the glass bottle B passes through the bottle opening inspection unit 15 or the bottle bottom inspection unit 20 is calculated based on detection values by the bottle passage sensor 60 and the conveyance speed sensor 62. Specifically, on the upstream side of the throat inspection unit 15, when the jar passage sensor 60 detects that the glass jar B has passed, the inspection conveyor 10 specified from the detection value of the conveyance speed sensor 62. Based on the transport speed, it is calculated how much time has passed until the glass bottle B passes through the imaging point in the mouth opening inspection section 15 or the bottom inspection section 20. Then, in accordance with the calculated timing, the image of the throat portion B1 or the heel bottom portion B2 of the glass jar B is performed.

  The pass / fail determination unit 73 corresponds to a determination unit according to the present invention. Based on the image data captured by the port inspection unit 15 and the port bottom inspection unit 20, the port opening B1 and the port bottom portion It is determined whether or not a defect exists in B2. Although details will be described in item (3) described later, the pass / fail judgment unit 73 specifies the brightest imaged area from the image data of the mouth opening B1 imaged by the mouth opening inspection section 15, and The darkest imaged region is identified from the image data of the heel bottom B2 imaged by the bottom inspection unit 20, and the quality of the throat B1 and the heel bottom B2 is determined based on the brightness of each region.

  The discharge controller 74 controls the discharge operation of the glass bottle B by the discharge device 5. That is, the discharge control unit 74 drives the linear motor 51 of the discharge device 5 at a predetermined timing when the glass bottle B determined to be defective by the pass / fail determination unit 73 passes through the side of the discharge device 5 and pushes it. By quickly moving the abutting portion 56 forward, the glass bottle B determined to be defective is pushed out from the downstream conveyor 3 and moved to the discharge conveyor 4.

  The timing at which the glass bottle B determined to be defective passes through the side of the discharger 5 is calculated based on the detection values of the bottle passage sensor 61 and the conveyance speed sensor 63. Specifically, when the passage of the glass bottle B, in which either the bottle opening B1 or the bottle bottom B2 is determined to be defective by the pass / fail judgment unit 73, is detected by the bottle passage sensor 61, the conveyance speed sensor 63 Based on the conveyance speed of the downstream conveyor 3 specified from the detection value, it is calculated how much time has passed to determine whether the glass bottle B determined to be defective passes through the side of the discharger 5. Then, the linear motor 51 of the discharge device 5 is driven at the passage timing of the glass bottle B calculated in this way, and the glass bottle B is pushed out by the protruding portion 56. In addition, about the operation | movement at the time of pushing through this glass bottle B, it demonstrates in detail by the item (4) mentioned later.

  The data storage unit 75 stores data necessary for the conveyor control unit 71, the imaging control unit 72, and the discharge control unit 74 to control the units, threshold data for pass / fail determination performed by the pass / fail determination unit 73, and the like. To do. Among these, for example, the threshold data for pass / fail judgment is appropriately rewritten by the user according to the required quality level.

(3) Inspection Logic Next, the logic (inspection logic) used when the quality determination unit 73 of the control unit 70 determines the quality of the glass bottle B will be described more specifically. Here, the inspection logic in the case of determining the quality of the mouth opening B1 based on the image captured by the mouth opening inspection section 15 will be mainly described.

  FIG. 8 shows a state in which a crack (crack) C has occurred in the mouth part B1 of the glass bottle B over a predetermined depth range from the upper surface thereof, and FIG. The situation when the part B1 is imaged by the mouth opening inspection part 15 is shown. As shown in FIG. 9, when infrared light is irradiated from the light source 16 thereabove toward the throat B1 in a situation where the crack C is generated in the throat B1, the irradiated infrared light is emitted. Is reflected by the crack C, changes its direction upward, and is taken into the light receiving portion 17a of the mouth opening recognition camera 17. On the other hand, when there is no defect such as a crack C, most of the infrared light passes through the glass bottle B and does not reflect upward, so the amount of infrared light taken into the mouth recognition camera 17 is small. become.

  From the above, when the mouth opening B1 is imaged by the mouth opening inspection unit 15, a portion where a defect such as the crack C is generated is picked up as a bright portion, and a portion without a defect is picked up as a dark portion. FIG. 10 shows an example of an image obtained when the lip portion B1 is imaged. A white area indicates a bright area and a black area indicates a dark area. According to this figure, it can be seen that the region S where the crack C is generated is imaged as a bright portion, and most other regions are imaged as dark portions.

  Based on the image information as shown in FIG. 10, the pass / fail judgment unit 73 specifies the brightest imaged area (that is, high brightness) in the image, and the brightness of the area is higher than a predetermined threshold value. When it is high, it is determined that the mouth opening B1 is defective. More specifically, the image of the mouth opening B1 is finely divided in the circumferential direction and the radial direction, and the average brightness in each obtained divided region (hereinafter referred to as a cell) is calculated based on, for example, gray scale gradation. To do. Then, the brightness of the brightest cell is specified from the calculated brightness of each cell, and when the brightness is higher than a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the mouth portion B1 has a defect.

  In the example of FIG. 10, the bright part region S caused by the crack C is considerably large, and the other bright parts are very fine. For this reason, the brightness of the cell including the region S is calculated to be significantly higher than the brightness of other cells, and as a result, the brightness of the cell is specified as the highest value. Then, when it is determined that the brightness is greater than the threshold value, it is determined that there is a defect in the mouth portion B1. Note that the inner and outer peripheral lines of the mouth opening B1 are also imaged as bright parts, but since they are not due to defects, they are not counted as bright parts.

  The lightness threshold is appropriately set by the user in accordance with the type of glass bottle B, the size of the defect to be detected, and the like. In order to set an appropriate threshold value, for example, it is preferable to take an image of the mouth part B1 of many non-defective glass bottles B, extract the brightness of the brightest cells from the obtained sample images, and create the distribution thereof. . Then, by determining how far the average value or standard deviation of the created brightness distribution should be set as a threshold value, the mouth opening B1 can be inspected with appropriate accuracy required by the user. .

  Next, the case where the pass / fail determination of the bottom B2 is performed will be briefly described. When inspecting the bottom part B2 by the bottom inspection part 20, as shown in FIG. 5, the infrared light is irradiated from the light source 21 below the bottom part B2, and the opposite side (above the mouth part B1). ) The bottom B2 is imaged by the bottom recognition camera 22. For this reason, if there is a foreign object, dirt, or the like in the heel bottom B2, that part is imaged as a dark part. Therefore, when inspecting the heel bottom B2, contrary to the inspection of the ostium B1, the darkest imaged area (that is, the lightness is low) is specified, and the lightness of the area is greater than a predetermined threshold value. Whether or not the bottom B2 is good is determined according to whether or not it is low.

(4) Discharging Operation Next, the operation when the discharging control unit 74 of the control unit 70 drives and controls the discharging device 5 will be described. When the pass / fail judgment unit 73 determines that either the mouth B1 or the bottom B2 of the glass bottle B is defective, the discharge controller 74 first passes the glass bottle B through the side of the discharge device 5. The timing is determined by calculation (the contents are as described in (2) above). Then, in accordance with the calculated timing, the discharge controller 74 drives the actuator 50 so that the butting portion 56 of the discharging device 5 is butted against the glass bottle B.

  Specifically, first, a drive current in a direction of protruding the cylinder rod 52 forward (downstream conveyor 3 side) is supplied to the linear motor 51 of the actuator 50. Thereby, as shown to Fig.11 (a), the abutting part 56 advances, and is abutted on the surrounding wall of the glass bowl B. FIG. The speed of the abutting portion 56 at this time is set to a value that is large to some extent so that the glass bottle B can be pushed away.

  That is, when the speed of the abutting portion 56 is set to the above value, the glass bottle B flies farther than the position where the abutting portion 56 is most advanced as shown in FIG. Then, it moves quickly from the downstream conveyor 3 to the discharge conveyor 4.

  Immediately after the glass bottle B is pushed away, the linear motor 51 of the actuator 50 is supplied with a drive current in a direction for moving the cylinder rod 52 backward, whereby the backward movement of the butting portion 56 is started. As a result, the abutting portion 56 is quickly pulled back to the initial position shown in FIG. 6, and the subsequent glass bottle B is prevented from interfering with the abutting portion 56.

  During the operation of the discharge device 5 as described above, the detection value by the linear sensor 64 is sequentially fed back to the discharge control unit 74 in order to accurately control the position and speed of the abutting unit 56. In other words, in order to drive the abutting portion 56 forward and backward quickly and accurately eject the glass bottle B to the discharge conveyor 4, it is necessary to accurately control the position and speed of the abutting portion 56. Therefore, the discharge control unit 74 performs feedback control based on the detection value of the linear sensor 64 so that the position and speed of the abutting unit 56 are controlled according to the target, thereby accurately feeding the glass bottle B to the discharge conveyor 4. And discharge.

(5) Operational effects and the like As described above, in the inspection system for the glass bottle B according to the present embodiment, the glass bottle B supplied from the upstream conveyor 2 is inspected by the inspection device 1, and the inspected glass bottle B is In addition to being conveyed downstream by the downstream conveyor 3, the glass bottle B whose inspection result is defective in the conveyance process is discharged from the downstream conveyor 3 to the discharge conveyor 4 by the discharge device 5. It has become. According to such a configuration, operations such as inspection, conveyance, and sorting (good / bad sorting) of the glass bottle B can be automatically performed in a series of flows, and the inspection efficiency of the glass bottle B is effective. Can be improved.

  In particular, in the above-described embodiment, the inspector 15 in the inspection apparatus 1 irradiates infrared light set with a peak wavelength value in the range of 800 to 900 nm from the light source 16 toward the inguinal part B1, Therefore, the reflected infrared light is taken into the mouth opening recognition camera 17, and based on the image of the mouth opening portion B1 thus imaged, the presence or absence of defects in the mouth opening portion B1 is determined. There is an advantage that important defects that can be detected can be reliably detected with stable accuracy.

  That is, it is important for the mouth portion B1 by irradiating the mouth portion B1 with infrared light having a longer wavelength than ultraviolet light or visible light and having relatively high transmittance, and taking the reflected component into the camera. When there is a defect, it can be clearly imaged, and the quality of the mouth opening B1 can be properly determined based on the imaged image.

  For example, when the crack C as shown in FIG. 8 exists in the pier B1, the crack C can be reliably recognized as a defect. That is, the infrared light emitted from the light source 16 is transmitted through the surface of the mouth opening B1 and reflected by the crack C (see FIG. 9), and the reflected infrared light is used for the mouth opening recognition camera 17. As shown in FIG. 10, it is possible to pick up an image of the crack S occurrence region S as a bright part.

  In particular, in the above-described embodiment, the captured image of the mouth opening B1 is divided into a plurality of cells (regions), and the brightness of the cell imaged brightest among them is compared with a predetermined threshold value. Since the presence / absence of a defect in the mouth portion B1 is determined, for example, when there is a serious defect such as a crack C in the mouth portion B1, the crack C that is imaged relatively brightly by reflection of infrared light. There is an advantage that the presence of can be reliably detected.

  FIG. 12 is a table showing the results of experiments conducted by the inventor of the present application in order to confirm the effects as described above. In the experiment shown in this table, a glass bottle B having a crack C as shown in FIG. At this time, the wavelength of the light emitted from the light source 16 was changed variously, and the relationship between the wavelength of the light and the detection accuracy of the defect was examined by examining whether or not the crack C was properly recognized each time. . Note that the size of the crack C in the glass bottle B used in this experiment was about 1 mm square in plan view.

  In the table of FIG. 12, the value of the wavelength indicates the peak wavelength of the light emitted from the light source 16, and “x”, “Δ”, “◯”, “◎” representing the detection accuracy results are detected in this order. It shows that the accuracy is high.

  For example, the detection accuracy when ultraviolet light having a peak wavelength of 365 nm was used was the worst “x”. On the other hand, even in the range of visible light, when blue light having a peak wavelength of 450 to 495 nm or white light (light that uniformly includes wavelengths in the visible light region) is used, the detection accuracy is still “x”. It was.

  The worst detection accuracy in these wavelength bands is that even if there are minute irregularities or surface flaws occurring in the mouth portion B1, light is irregularly reflected and picked up as a strong bright portion, and crack C This is because such an important defect cannot be distinguished and detected. In other words, in a small-scale glass bottle or a returnable bottle that is recycled and used, minute irregularities, surface scratches, and the like often occur at the mouth opening B1. Even if such minute irregularities are present, there is no problem in using the glass bottle. On the other hand, the crack C as shown in FIG. 8 is cracked (broken) in the opening B1 when, for example, a cap is attached to the opening B1 in a later process or when the user opens the cap. It is a defect that is easy to cause and cannot be overlooked. However, when light having a relatively short wavelength band as described above is used, since the transmittance with respect to the glass is low (that is, it is easy to reflect), even if there are minute irregularities or surface scratches as described above, As a result of irregular reflection, the mouth portion B1 is imaged brightly as a whole. In this case, an important defect such as the crack C cannot be distinguished and recognized, and the defect detection accuracy is significantly lowered.

  On the other hand, if the wavelength of the light used is lengthened, the detection accuracy of the crack C is improved. For example, in the visible light region, when red light having a peak wavelength of 620 to 750 nm is used, the detection accuracy is “Δ”. Further, when infrared light having peak wavelengths of 800, 820, 850, and 900 nm is used outside the visible light region, the detection accuracy is further improved and becomes “◯” or “◎”.

  However, when the wavelength is further increased to 940 nm, the detection accuracy decreases again to “Δ”. This is because the light transmittance becomes too high and the reflectance of light at the crack C becomes small, so that the crack C cannot be imaged as a clear bright part.

  In view of the above experimental results, in the above embodiment, infrared light having a peak wavelength value set within a range of 800 to 900 nm is used as the light emitted from the light source 16 of the mouth opening inspection unit 15. I used it. This makes it possible to accurately detect an important defect such as a crack C occurring in the mouth opening B1 while clearly distinguishing it from minute irregularities and surface scratches that do not cause a problem in use.

  In particular, according to FIG. 12, it can be seen that if the value of the peak wavelength is limited to the range of 820 to 850 nm, the detection accuracy becomes “「 ”, which is the highest, and the detection accuracy further increases. Therefore, in order to ensure higher detection accuracy, it can be said that it is desirable to set the peak wavelength value within the range of 820 to 850 nm.

  Further, as described above, when infrared light having a peak wavelength value set within a range of 800 to 900 nm (or 820 to 850 nm) is used, the wavelength band is relatively close to the visible light region. A normal image sensor (CCD image sensor or CMOS image sensor) having a main sensitivity distribution in the visible light region is used as the light receiving unit 17a of the above-described shed recognition camera 17 that takes in infrared light reflected by the shed B1. be able to. For this reason, the use of infrared light in the wavelength band as described above is advantageous in reducing the cost of the apparatus.

  In the above embodiment, the peak wavelength of the infrared light emitted from the light source 16 is set in the range of 800 to 900 nm. However, if a heavy defect such as a crack C can be detected, the above range is slightly changed. It may be off infrared light. For example, according to FIG. 12, even if infrared light having a peak wavelength exceeding 900 nm is used, if the wavelength is at least less than 940 nm, there is a possibility that the detection accuracy of the crack C can be sufficiently secured.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the number of the opening inspection part 15 which test | inspects the opening part B1 of the glass pot B was set to one, in order to respond | correspond to the glass pot of various sizes and shapes, A mouth opening inspection unit 15 may be provided. For example, a plurality of mouth inspection parts 15 having different shapes and brightness of the light source 16 or the type of the camera 17 are slidably provided, and the mouth inspection part used depending on the type of the glass eye B to be inspected. It is good to switch 15 suitably. This also applies to the bottom inspecting part 20 that inspects the bottom part B2, and a plurality of bottom inspecting parts 20 may be slidably arranged side by side.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inspection apparatus 2 Upstream conveyor 3 Downstream conveyor 5 Discharge apparatus 16 Light source 17 Mouth recognition camera (imaging means)
73 Pass / fail judgment unit (determination means)
B Glass bowl B1 Higuchi part

Claims (7)

A method for optically inspecting the presence or absence of defects in a glass bottle,
An irradiation step of irradiating infrared light from a light source toward the mouth portion of the glass bottle,
An imaging step of capturing infrared light irradiated from the light source and reflected at the mouth portion into an imaging means to image the mouth portion,
Look including a determination step of determining the presence or absence of a defect in the bottle mouth portion based on the image captured by the imaging means,
In the determination step, the image of the mouth portion obtained from the imaging unit is divided into a plurality of regions, and when the brightness of the brightest imaged region is higher than a predetermined threshold, A method for inspecting a glass bottle, wherein it is determined that a defect exists . In the inspection method of the glass bottle of Claim 1,
A method for inspecting a glass bottle using infrared light having a peak wavelength set within a range of 800 to 900 nm as infrared light emitted from the light source. In the inspection method of the glass bottle of Claim 1,
A method for inspecting a glass bottle using infrared light having a peak wavelength value set within a range of 820 to 850 nm as infrared light emitted from the light source. An apparatus for optically inspecting the presence or absence of defects in a glass bottle,
A light source that emits infrared light toward the mouth of the glass bottle,
Imaging means for capturing infrared light that is irradiated from the light source and reflected by the mouth part, and images the mouth part,
Determination means for determining the presence or absence of defects in the mouth portion based on the image captured by the imaging means ,
The determining means divides the image of the mouth portion obtained from the imaging means into a plurality of regions, and when the brightness of the brightest imaged region is higher than a predetermined threshold, An inspection apparatus for glass bottles, characterized by determining that a defect exists . The glass bottle inspection apparatus according to claim 4 ,
An inspection apparatus for glass bottles, wherein a peak wavelength of infrared light emitted from the light source is set to a value within a range of 800 to 900 nm. The glass bottle inspection apparatus according to claim 4 ,
An inspection apparatus for glass bottles, wherein a peak wavelength of infrared light emitted from the light source is set to a value within a range of 820 to 850 nm. An inspection system for inspecting glass flaws for defects,
An inspection apparatus for glass bottles according to any one of claims 4 to 6 ,
An upstream conveyor for supplying glass bottles to the inspection device;
A downstream conveyor for conveying the glass bottles inspected by the inspection apparatus in a predetermined direction;
An inspection system for glass bottles, comprising: a discharge device that removes the glass bottle determined to be defective by the inspection apparatus from the downstream conveyor.