Method for checking an aerosol-generating article for manufacturing defects
AssigneePhilip Morris Products S.A.
InventorsLuca Natali, Matteo Balboni
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method for checking an aerosol-generating article for manufacturing defects, comprising: —recording several 2-dimensional surface profiles of the aerosol-generating article while rotating the aerosol-generating article, —combining several surface profiles recorded at different rotation angles to obtain a 3-dimensional surface profile, calculating a maximum height difference of the 3-dimensional surface profile, and —rejecting the aerosol-generating article if the maximum height difference of its 3-dimensional surface profile is above a threshold value.
Claims13
A method for checking an aerosol-generating article for manufacturing defects, comprising:
- recording several 2-dimensional surface profiles of the aerosol-generating article while rotating the aerosol-generating article,
- combining several surface profiles recorded at different rotation angles to obtain a 3-dimensional surface profile,
- calculating a maximum height difference of the 3-dimensional surface profile, and
- rejecting the aerosol-generating article if the maximum height difference of its 3-dimensional surface profile is above a threshold value, wherein additionally
- a 2-dimensional visual image of the surface of the aerosol-generating article is recorded while rotating the aerosol-generating article
- several 2-dimensional surface visual images or intensity lines recorded at different rotation angles are combined to obtain a combined 2-dimensional visual surface image,
- the combined visual surface image is compared with a combined defect-free visual image of a defect-free aerosol-generating article via image-correlation, and
- the aerosol-generating article is rejected if its combined visual surface image does not fit the defect-free visual image.
An inspection device configured for detection of manufacturing defects in aerosol-generating articles, comprising:
- a surface profile sensor configured for recording several 2-dimensional surface profiles of the aerosol-generating article,
- rotating means configured for rotating the aerosol-generating article during the recording of the surface profiles, and
- a surface profile controller configured for processing the several 2-dimensional surface profiles recorded at different rotation angles to obtain a 3-dimensional surface profile, and configured for calculating a maximum height difference of the 3-dimensional surface profile, further comprising:
- a visual imaging sensor configured for recording several 2-dimensional visual images or intensity lines of the surface of the aerosol-generating article while rotating the aerosol-generating article, and
- a visual imaging controller configured for processing the several 2-dimensional surface visual images or intensity lines at different rotation angles to obtain a combined 2-dimensional visual surface image and configured for comparing the combined visual surface image with a combined defect-free visual image of a defect-free aerosol-generating article via image-correlation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.