Olmec UK has been shortlisted for the ‘Most Innovative Machine Vision Project’ and ‘Partnership of the Year’ categories of the PPMA Group Industry Awards. The winners will be selected by an independent judging panel and announced at the PPMA Awards Dinner on 30th September 2014.
The nomination for the machine vision award was for Olmec’s development of a multifunctional 8-camera inspection system for a manufacturer of woundcare dressings. This featured a novel automated vision control of the dressing position within its packaging to minimise the possibility of the product being trapped in the seal as the packaging pouch is sealed. The system provides fully automated rejection of any defective product.
Olmec-UK have been nominated in the partnership category for their work with Rofin-Baasel and Universal Converting Equipment in the development of ‘VisionPerfoControl’ - a vision-based system for true real-time monitoring of perforation quality in laser perforated flexible modified atmosphere packaging. Modified atmosphere packaging can prolong the shelf-life of fresh or minimally processed foods, by allowing controlled exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the modified internal atmosphere and the external atmosphere as the food ‘breathes’. VisionPerfoControl can measure hole sizes ranging from 30 – 120 µm diameter (approximately the diameter of a human hair) on a web running at speeds up to 450m/min.
Olmec-UK Technical Director, Robert Pounder, said: “We are really pleased to be shortlisted for both awards. We actually won the machine vision award in 2012, and reaching the final again is a great reflection of the technical expertise that we offer our customers.”
