Since the 2014 installation of a Superbloc filling sytem from MBF, the McManis Family Winery of Ripon, CA, has quadrupled in size. So eventually, packaging machinery upstream and downstream of the Superbloc had to be automated. Central to the automation upgrade has been the installation of inspection technology.
As currently configured, the line begins with a low-level depalletizer from Emmeti that sweeps bulk glass layer by layer and single files the bottles so that they can pass through an inspection system from FT System. The actual camera technology in this system comes from Cognex, but FT System integrates it into their solution and also takes care of the software programming, bottle handling framework, and reject table.
“I like the way they’ve incorporated Cognex into their system,” saysDirector of Packaging Operations Manny Moreno. “It lets us check for chipped finishes, chipped shoulders, cracks, and foreign objects. It’s really thorough.”
