Schwarzwaldhof implements hyperspectral seal inspection for better packaging quality of trays with bacon chunks
The Black Forest ham, sausage and bacon specialties from Schwarzwaldhof are always a delight. Because at Schwarzwaldhof, they know what makes these specialties so unique: the best ingredients, the experience of their employees combined with modern technology.
In addition to quality requirements, the highest demands are also placed on product safety. For this reason, they only process selected meat with masterful expertise under the strictest controls. And the latest addition to the extensive quality controls is a vision-based hyperspectral seal inspection system to detect bacon trays with product in the seal to avoid leaking packages.
DOWNLOAD PDF
The history of the production plant in Blumberg began in 1965 and since then, the site has been progressively extended to provide new product variations and increased production capacity. As a subsidiary of EDEKA Südwest, the Blumberg-based factory has been a guarantee for excellent regional products, that are available in over 1.000 EDEKA stores. Today, Schwarzwaldhof employs around 330 highly qualified people who ensure the highest quality of the Schwarzwaldhof products.
Packaging a variety of bacon products
Beside the Black Forest sliced ham and sausages, an important product assortment are bacon chunks that are packaged in many variations and tray formats: single and duo trays, ultra-fine slices or larger chunks, originating from various types of meat, for different retail customers: all resulting in more than a dozen product variations.
The bacon is packaged on a MULTIVAC tray processing line, where the trays are filled and sealed under modified atmosphere conditions to preserve the freshness of the product.
Until mid-2023, the different inspection steps were X-ray, metal detection, weight control and finally before placing in carton boxes, a visual inspection was also done by the operators. The X-ray was initially intended to detect seal contamination: as the bacon products are gassed, seal inspection is crucial to preserve freshness. Compromised, leaking trays with product-in-seal need to be removed from the line and can at no cost leave the production site. At a production rate of up to 120 trays per minute, this end-of-line packaging was performed by up to 5 operators, a challenging and stressful task.
Schwarzwaldhof decided to optimize the end-of line packaging and had two goals: install an automated tray stacker to reduce the number of packaging operators and secondly systematize the efficiency of the seal inspection. The X-ray system, that qualifies foreign bodies based on differences in densities, was not suitable for seal inspection as the small parts of bacon were not reliably detected in the seal. Therefore, in 2022 Schwarzwaldhof started searching for an efficient, in-line seal inspection system that could cope with different – including printed – top seals and eliminate the need for visual inspection by the end-of-line packaging team.
Groundbreaking hyperspectral seal inspection
Schwarzwaldhof was already familiarized with Engilico’s solutions for seal inspection of flexible packaging (flow-packs, bags, pouches) and it was on packaging tradeshow Fachpack that they first saw HyperScope® Engilico’s new hyperspectral seal inspection solution. After successful testing of sample trays, Schwarzwaldhof decided to replace their X-ray system with the hyperspectral seal inspection system. HyperScope® uses hyperspectral imaging to detect seal contamination with obvious contrast, even with printed film. The inspection system features GPU-accelerated artificial intelligence (AI), enabling real-time, high-precision seal area detection. The detected sealing area is analyzed in several post-processing steps to detect e.g. seal breaches, contamination inclusions in the seal, etc. Finally, based on configurable decision criteria the package is accepted or rejected.
Hyperspectral cameras capture information from a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum including infrared wavelengths that penetrate the plastic top films. Hyperspectral imaging, therefore, unlocks new inspection possibilities where classic imaging often falls short, e.g., on printed film packages which are often used in premium products. The system can inspect up to 160 packages per minute, a speed that is well aligned with sliced, chopped and/or bulked-food production lines.
HyperScope® is equipped with its own conveyor belt and an integrated reject unit.
“Seal defects can have a disastrous impact on the conservation of the bacon product.”, says the Packaging Manager at Schwarzwaldhof, “As we were streamlining our end-of-line production, it is very important for us that 100% of our products are inspected.”
Even for aesthetic purposes, product inclusion in the sealing area is not acceptable for retail. HyperScope® can be configured to only reject critical contaminations that breach the seal while smaller, less critical seal inclusions can be optionally ignored. The defective trays are automatically rejected by the
HyperScope® system, collected in a box and re-packaged to avoid any loss of product. “In this way, through early defect recognition, the system also contributes indirectly to our strategy: helping to reduce waste and energy.”
Smooth installation, performant operation
The X-ray system was decommissioned and swiftly replaced by the HyperScope® system. The embedded conveyor was specifically designed to fit in the layout of the production line. The system communicates its operational status to the MULTIVAC thermo-former to synchronize the movement of the conveyor.
“We are very pleased with the installation and support by the Engilico team.”, adds the Packaging Manager, “Also, our operators reported that their overall job satisfaction and focus have improved since the automated, in-line seal inspection system has relieved them of the constant stress and fear of missing errors during visual inspections.”
HyperScope® is capable of processing different product variations, which is important as Schwarzwaldhof is producing for varied brands in several package weights and sizes. In total, more than 12 different product models were created and extensively validated. All daily inspection information for the different products is saved in a database that can be exported in many reporting formats.
An important benefit is the excellent remote support by Engilico’s team. The system UI can be monitored and adapted from within Engilico’s headquarters. As such, data can be captured to further train and finetune AI models, software upgrades or system fine-tuning can be efficiently addressed without wasting valuable time with local support visits.
“We experience less complaints, both internally as externally.”, concludes the Packaging Manager, “HyperScope® is a true innovative and performant inspection solution that is particularly suited for trays, even with printed top film.”
As Schwarzwaldhof has many other tray production lines for sliced ham and bacon, as well as flow-packers for sausages where end-of-line automation is in the picture, they are definitely interested in further implementing Engilico’s seal inspection technologies to globally increase their packaging quality and productivity.