Share this on social media:

In the branding machine. Credit: AT-Automation Technology

Fast, precise, and flexible: AT-Automation Technology is internationally renowned for its 3D sensor product portfolio and has always been one of the leading industry suppliers. The reason for this is the personalized development of 3D sensors, so this company from northern Germany can provide suitable solutions for almost all applications, and then manufacture them completely according to customer specifications-even without additional custom manufacturing costs, no minimum Order acceptance rate, there is no long waiting time.

One company that benefits from the advantages of AT 3D sensors is EcoMark GmbH, which specializes in marking food directly on pallets through laser marking. On the one hand, this is done to reduce the production of plastics and packaging in the future, but on the other hand, to provide effective processes in terms of sustainability and environmental friendliness, while also proving to be economical. However, food brands need a lot of technical knowledge from the beginning, because many important details need to be considered when labeling food.

In order to be able to individually position the laser marking machine for each product, thereby ensuring a 100% hit rate for food marking, a separate application is required. With the help of 3D sensors, the app must be able to determine the location of fruits and vegetables on the conveyor belt. The challenge is to develop a 3D scanning solution that is not only highly accurate and fast, but also can send reliable data to the marking laser, despite the different measurement widths and positions of fruits and vegetables. AT's solution: products from the C5-2040CS sensor series. The 2040 sensor not only combines speed and accuracy, it also allows measurement widths up to one meter, with a high resolution of 2,048 measurement points. In addition, they are almost maintenance-free and hardly require any support because they have been factory calibrated and can be easily integrated into any existing system through plug-and-play using the GigE Vision interface without much installation work.

"EcoMark is a perfect example of the unique diversity of AT 300's multiple sensor variants," explains AT CEO Michael Wandelt. 'According to customers' technical data, we can provide suitable 3D sensors to meet their exact requirements. We always strive to provide each of our customers with the best products to significantly benefit from their processes and improve their efficiency.

However, the focus is also on the cost-effectiveness of this process optimization. "We are very optimistic that the trend of putting food labels directly on pallets will be established in the future," said Richard Neuhoff, CEO of EcoMark. 'In the end, this method is much cheaper than previous plastic solutions because it completely eliminates packaging costs. Since we purchased the labeling system, we only incurred costs at the beginning of production, and the subsequent follow-up costs were very low.

Even before EcoMark develops food brand machines, the company has specialized in producing laser machines for marking any material. Thanks to years of expertise in this field, the so-called natural brand concept was born in 2018, and the company was able to attract global attention. EcoMark GmbH is now one of the largest international food and natural brand suppliers. Generally speaking, their labeling machine can mark up to 100,000 fruit products per hour, depending on the thickness of the tray and the nature of the variety. "Each fruit and vegetable product has a different size, and of course a different peel, so we must always be careful to find the best balance between the visibility of the mark and the product's shelf life," Neuhoff continued. "For example, if the laser is set incorrectly, the peel will be destroyed in the process, so you must be very clear about what you are doing."

For the application developed by EcoMark, it does not matter whether the kiwi or cucumber is on the conveyor belt. The 3D sensor flexibly scans fruits and vegetables and creates a 3D point cloud for each product within a few milliseconds, and then calibrates the laser marking based on this point cloud. So far, AT EcoMark has provided 15 C5-2040CS sensors for food brand applications, and more sensors for other industries are in preparation, as they have been in continuous use since they were first integrated into the labeling system.

More information www.eco-mark.de; www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcbInyUtv0

Use laser triangulation for electronic quality checks. Credit: sick

Photo: Constantine Zibert/shutterstock.com

Greg Blackman discovers how seed producers reap the rewards of imaging

Photo: Dennis Simonov/shutterstock.com

Tahir Rabbani of Viztronics talked about a 3D solution for imaging shiny orthopedic implants at the Vision exhibition. Greg Blackman reports

Greg Blackman and James Falconer of Pleora talk about the latest version of GigE Vision

Photo: Sonpichit Salangsing/shutterstock.com

As solar energy becomes an increasingly important energy source, Andrew Williams studies how to use infrared imaging to evaluate solar panels

Anne Wendel, Director of Machine Vision at VDMA, said that people are increasingly worried about chip supply bottlenecks and material shortages.

Vision experts say that neural networks are making great progress, but the implementation of machine vision solutions still faces major challenges

Picture: Sony Semiconductor and Prophesee

Prophesee won the Vision Award for its event-based imaging method. Greg Blackman talked with company CEO Luca Verre about the future of the technology