Teledyne is showcasing its new Seal Integrity Tester at PACK EXPO Las Vegas.

The technology uses bridge-mounted sensors to find and reject improperly sealed containers as they are being processed by a filler machine. Types of products that the Seal Integrity Tester would commonly inspect include yogurts, soups and sauces, baby food, dressings, juices, and coffee. The sensors are capable of finding and rejecting bad seals that are caused by a variety of defects such as deformed or damaged lids, weak seals from out-of-range heater temperature, and seals that are loose due to superfluous product covering the seal area.

The system works by compressing a spring-loaded sensor head to the lid of a container, measuring the lid deflection that occurs during the compression cycle, and then sending an individual reject signal to the filler machine for each defective container. Signals can be sent to a PLC or other external controller via pulse signals or Ethernet connectivity. The sensor heads can be affixed to most filler machines either via a custom bridge designed by Teledyne, an existing bridge, or a bridge designed by the filler machine manufacturer to fit Teledyne’s sensors.

Teledyne is also exhibiting its Pro-Series software, which can visually plot various types of time-series and historical data in order to help help operators more easily identify performance trends. According to Mark Bussard, product line manager at Teledyne, being able to compare various metrics visually can allow end-users to recognize patterns that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. This allows more actionable insights to be extracted from data that previously may have only been descriptive in nature.