US 6,376,006 B1Granted

Closure lining and color detector

AssigneeCrown Cork & Seal Technologies Corporation

InventorsGerald M. Gresko, Daniel L. Brant

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Abstract

A system is disclosed for detecting or inspecting for a lining of a container closure that is formed of a sheet metal and has a panel on an inside surface of the closure. The panel of the closure has a lining formed thereon. The system according to the present invention includes a conveyor for moving plural closures longitudinally and substantially through the system, a color sensor that inspects the panel of each one of the closures on the conveyor for a predetermined color, and a separator that is capable of removing closures that lack the predetermined color. The system may include an oven downstream from the sensor to bake the lining. Thus, the system automatically identifies and removes the closure having the deficient color from the conveyor. A corresponding method for identifying and removing a closure having a deficient color is also disclosed.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A method for identifying container closures having a deficient color status from container closures having a sufficient color status, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a lining compound on an inside panel surface on substantially each one of said closures in a compound station;
(b) conveying said closures from said compound station to a color sensor on a conveyor,
(c) receiving and measuring light wavelengths of substantially each of the closures to determine a color thereof by said color sensor based on said measured wavelengths;
(d) comparing the measured wavelengths to a predetermined pattern of wavelengths in order to identify the color as either a sufficient color or a deficient color, the deficient color status corresponding to the predetermined pattern of wavelengths of said panel surface, whereby the deficient color corresponds to a predetermined portion of the panel substantially lacking the lining compound ;
and
(e) automatically separating the closures having a deficient color status from the closures having a sufficient color status.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.