Safety seals and wafers, tamper-evident seals, shrink bands, security strips — there are a wide variety of these protective solutions. Designed to prevent containers from being accidentally opened and making it obvious when they have been, these products are a staple for countless healthcare, personal care, cosmetic, and food brands nationwide. It’s because of their prevalence and benefits that safety seal detection is crucial in production.
Because the production lines in these industries are typically moving rapidly, manual safety seal detection that’s accurate, efficient, and reliable is virtually impossible. Other solutions, like machine vision systems, are costly and take a significant amount of time to integrate into an existing line. That, and they may have difficulty detecting transparent or translucent materials.
So what is the ideal long-term solution for high-speed, reliable, and easy-to-integrate safety seal detection? At EMX Industries, Inc., we offer two options with the flexibility to support your production — whether you’re using a transparent seal, a colored one, or a seal with any other type of additive.
The UVX line of luminescence sensors was designed as a flexible solution for verifying the presence of ultraviolet (UV) markings and materials. The sensor emits a UV beam that causes the target material to fluoresce, or glow. Should a seal be missing, not have the target material, or if another desired property that is detectable via UV light isn’t present, the sensor will trigger a PLC or some other system — notifying managers or enabling another action such as product removal from the line.
A variety of UVX sensors are available depending on your safety seal detection needs and production line setup. Models have a display that shows the current output, operating ranges from 20mm all the way up to 650mm, and a variety of gain selections and spectral sensitivities. Should your safety seal feature a weaker luminescent tracer and require a focusing lens for detection, the UVX-300L50 50mm focal lens is available, ensuring that no matter the material, you’ll be able to implement the sensor in your environment.
Data from the sensor can also be tracked over time in an enterprise system, allowing production teams to measure the number and frequency of issues and take steps to improve quality control or manufacturing practices if needed. And thanks to its auto-teach function, the UVX line is ideal for rapid, simple implementation. Manual calibration is available for refinements as well.
See it in action: Watch the UVX sensor detect a variety of luminescent materials here.
Whereas the UVX line is ideal for transparent safety seal detection, your product and branding requirements may call for seals that are colored, feature registration marks, or otherwise have some element separate from the seal that needs to be detected. Because this type of detection is primarily focused on verifying the presence of the seal only, a contrast sensor is an ideal solution. For this need, EMX Industries, Inc. offers the CNTX line of industrial contrast sensors.
The CNTX sensor is particularly suited to this application for several reasons. First, it’s incredibly fast — in fact, it’s the fastest line of sensors in our product portfolio. With a 25-microsecond response time and 40kHz switching speeds, there’s virtually no production line that will outpace the CNTX’s safety seal detection abilities. The sensor can detect up to 50 grayscale levels and also features a broad-spectrum LED light source, allowing it to detect a wide range of colors. So regardless of the color of your safety seal, the CNTX sensor will be able to verify presence with speed, accuracy, and ease.
Several models are available with spot sizes ranging from 0.5mm (for extremely focused applications) up to 3mm. And thanks to the circular spot size, the sensor can be set up in any orientation. The 28mm operating range ensures that the sensor can be seamlessly integrated into any production environment. Its calibration options and light source intensity settings also allow the sensor to be adjusted to your specific detection goals. At a highly affordable price point, the CNTX is a flexible solution that can be put to work right away in virtually any production environment.
See it in action: Explore videos of the CNTX sensor working its magic here.
Our UVX and CNTX sensors are our most common solutions for safety seal detection. Whether you already have a sensor in place and aren’t getting the level of accuracy you need, or if you’re looking to take your quality control to the next level, these two industry-leading sensors are affordable, precise, and incredibly simple to integrate into your line. Why invest tens of thousands in more expensive, time-consuming solutions that don’t offer the same level of flexibility?
Find out which sensor will work best in your application: simply reach out to us for a complimentary sample evaluation, and our expert engineers will test it with one or both sensors. You’ll receive a written report detailing how the sensor worked for your material, what the readings were, and any recommendations for how to best implement the sensor to achieve the desired results.
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