The complete solution Incoming Goods Suite for automated goods receiving and the W10 photoelectric proximity switch series, whose strengths, according to the supplier, include the reliable detection of packaging with different or challenging surface properties such as gloss, color or textures, will also be presented.

"As a reliable partner to the packaging industry, Sick offers complete solutions comprising hardware, digital products and services from a single source," explains Michael Zahn, Sales Manager Consumer Goods at Sick Vertriebs-GmbH. "Products and systems like the ones we are presenting at Fachpack ensure reliable productivity, support digitalization and sustainably increase quality and productivity."

Use of AI for process and quality control

With the Inspector83x 2D vision sensor for inline inspection tasks in high-speed production lines and the MIDS for automatic completeness checks in packaging processes, Sick is presenting two sensor solutions with integrated AI functionality in Nuremberg. "We provide user-friendly deep learning tools and applications that enable users to independently develop suitable solutions for their challenges, even without in-depth programming knowledge," explains Marco Kaiser, Global Industry Manager - Consumer Goods at Sick. "We also offer free trial offers. This allows our customers to test our tools and applications extensively and only purchase software licenses once they are satisfied with the results."

With a resolution of up to five megapixels and integrated lighting, the new Sick Inspector83x is designed as a practical all-in-one product. Thanks to its quad-core CPU and high-speed data transmission via industrial networks, the sensor can carry out inspections directly internally using AI. It achieves significantly higher speeds than its predecessors. With the Inspector83x, complex inspections can be carried out with minimal set-up effort. It also supports the evaluation of products with unpredictable features and the verification of complex objects as well as OCR/OCV readout and verification.

The MIDS Missing Item Detection Sensor is able to effectively monitor packaging processes and reliably detect missing objects in secondary or tertiary packaging, pharmaceutical packaging or even reusable containers using 3D sensors, among other things. Sick Nova provides the software basis for the configurable image processing solutions of the Sick Inspector83x. With a special tool for checking completeness, the user can check the contents at specific positions within containers. For the inspection - the software runs entirely in the sensor and can be visualized and configured via a Human Machine Interface (HMI) in a web browser - both height and area data of the individual cells are used. If required, the inspection tool can also be supplemented with additional rule-based or AI-based inspections in order to carry out further quality checks in parallel.

Safety for people and processes

With the Safe Adaptive Access system solution, the company presents a non-contact protective device for material flow systems. Based on two vertically mounted safety laser scanners, the system monitors infeed and outfeed sections on machines with hazardous movements. According to the company, the special feature of the solution is the dynamic and automatic adaptation of the protective fields to the height, width and position of the transported objects, for example cartons. The safety function - i.e. the differentiation between people and material - takes place without external signals or sensors. Safe Adaptive Access meets the high safety requirements of Type 4 / SIL3 / pl d.

With the W10 photoelectric proximity switch, Sick is presenting a sensor for a wide range of detection tasks in packaging technology at Fachpack. The sensor series comprises four variants, which differ in their working distances and mounting options. In conjunction with the precise receiver evaluation line, the laser class 1 transmission LED delivers precise detection results with high repeat accuracy - even for objects with different or challenging surface properties such as gloss, color or structures. The application-optimized Speed, Standard or Precision operating modes can be activated just as easily as foreground or background suppression via the touchscreen interface of the IO-Link sensor. The W10 diffuse sensors are available both in a short-range version with operating distances between 25 mm and 400 mm and in a long-range version with operating distances from 25 mm to 700 mm.