Precise optoelectronic sensor for presence check of bottle labels in filling machines

Balluff STM GmbH: In many bottle filling plants no cost-efficient and at the same time reliable solution for the detection of labels on drinking bottles is available. A missing label means a problem: The label is needed by the consumer to redeem the deposit or for indication of the best-before date.

STM now offers a reliable solution with its sensor RLV3012.

The sensor uses the different reflectance of bottles (glass or PET) compared to labels in addition to geometric background suppression. It is constructed in a way that an unlabeled bottle does not yield a signal but only the label itself. This reflective beam sensor can be used with a huge variety of labels and beverages – no matter if it is mineral water or practically nontransparent liquids like various fruit juices.

The nominal working distance is 38 mm. Fluctuations of the bottle-sensor distance which are unavoidable during a fast filling process are tolerated in the range of at least ±8 mm. This innovative new development is already in use at bottle filling plants in Germany and has proven its practicability at speeds up to 40’000 bottles per hour (eleven per second).

Due to the compact size of 30 mm x 12 mm x 7 mm it can easily be integrated into existing filling machines even when space is limited. The actual size of the housing can be individually adapted to customers’ requirements.