MARCH 12--As part of a major investment in its North American plants, British packaging company Rexam (London, UK; www.rexam.com) has awarded an exclusive five-year contract to machine-vision company Applied Vision (Akron, OH, USA; www.appliedvision.com) for complete inspection-system services. The contract represents one of the largest single orders awarded to a machine-vision company serving the food-and-beverage container industry in the past decade. The agreement encompasses the replacement of previous suppliers' equipment with newly enhanced Genius and Kroma-King systems with VTRAC technology, system installation, training, technical support, and service for all Rexam Beverage Can North America's plants in the USA and Mexico. Rexam's European facilities are currently considering the program for possible implementation later this year.
Integrated in the lines, the Genius systems will automatically inspect 100% of the containers for inside can defects, while the Kroma-King systems will similarly perform mixed label inspections. Defects are automatically rejected from the lines by the systems. Notably, these installations also feature the industry's first advanced process monitoring technology. Applied Vision's exclusive VTRAC intelligent machine software enables the systems to immediately pinpoint the manufacturing component causing a defect trend. Rexam's new systems are designed to instantly alert line personnel to the exact upstream body maker, necker pocket, or spray gun causing the defect, as well as the source of a label mixup. By eliminating the costly search and guesswork time typically needed to determine those sources, VTRAC helps to achieve unprecedented spoilage reduction.
"The advantages for Rexam are also expandable. Through the partnership, complete inspection services can be extended to lines being developed to manufacture new Rexam container designs, as well as to all Rexam beverage can lines worldwide," according to Applied Vision vice president of sales, Darren Hench.
