Integrated Vision System Designed Specifically for Tortilla Inspection

Dipix Technologies Inc. (Ottawa, Ont.) has announced the volume production of its QualiVision Model L800-T54, a system designed to meet the product inspection needs of tortilla manufacturing companies. Multi-unit deliveries are now being shipped to North American and European tortilla plants.

The T54 system is a complete machine-vision system providing full tortilla inspection - including detection of holes, straight edges, folded and misshapen product, plus the intensity and distribution of toast points.

It is built for lines up to 54-in in width. An individual defective tortilla is removed without affecting neighboring items, which supports automated stacking and packaging.

Tortillas can now flow from cooling belt to stackers and packaging without human inspection. Line operator control of bake quality is aided by trend data presented on a color touch screen. Trends can thus be detected before they are visible to the human eye and corrective action can be taken before the product goes out of specification.

QualiVision product manager, Andrew Scott commented, "The design incorporates our many years of baking industry experience - solving, for our customers, the many practical problems of automated food inspection.

System components include optical technology, lighting, computer hardware and software, as well as the transport and rejection mechanisms. Our philosophy has been to build a complete solution - with reliability assured by industrial-strength features to protect against heat, power fluctuations, and debris."

Paul Pearl, president of Dipix states, "We have worked closely with a number of our leading customers to ensure that the product meets their needs. Judging from the enthusiastic reception greeting the product, we have clearly succeeded."

Dipix Technologies Inc. designs 2D/3D machine vision systems for the on-line inspection of baked products. The QualiVision systems are engineered to integrate leading-edge optical and electronic hardware, software and mechanical handling.

For more information contact Dipix Technologies Inc., 1051 Baxter Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2C 3P1. Tel: 800-724-5929; Fax: 613-596-4914.