System and method for inspecting and sorting molded containers

A system for inspecting and sorting molded containers, including:

• an inspecting device that inspects containers for at least one commercial variation, which is associated with a mold of origin of the container, relative to predetermined acceptable limits for said at least one commercial variation to determine if a container has at least one commercial variation outside of said acceptable limits;
• a container mold of origin identifier adapted to determine the mold of origin of a container determined by said inspection device to have at least one unacceptable commercial variation;
• a controller communicating with the inspection device and the container mold of origin identifier, and operable to monitor at least one programmable reject-at threshold for at least one commercial variation to determine if a mold of origin has produced a number of containers having said at least one commercial variation outside of said acceptable limits and a pack-at threshold that is less than said reject-at threshold;
• and
• a diverter communicating with the controller and operable to segregate all containers produced by a mold of origin determined to have produced the number of containers having said at least one commercial variation beyond said acceptable limits at or in excess of said reject-at threshold, wherein the controller and diverter are operable to allow containers produced by a previously segregated mold cavity to proceed for further processing when a number of containers from said previously segregated mold cavity fall below said pack-at threshold.

A method of inspecting and sorting molded containers, including the steps of:

• a) inspecting molded containers for commercial variations outside of acceptable limits, which commercial variations are associated with mold cavities that produced the containers;
• b) setting a cavity reject-at threshold for at least two unacceptable commercial variations in a controller and setting a pack-at threshold that is less than said reject-at threshold for said at least two unacceptable commercial variations in the controller;
• c) correlating a container that is determined to have at least one unacceptable commercial variation with the mold cavity that produced the container;
• d) segregating with a diverter all containers produced by the mold cavity after the mold cavity is determined to have produced containers, which include said at least one unacceptable commercial variation, in excess of said reject-at threshold until a number of containers produced by a previously segregated mold cavity fall below said pack-at threshold for said at least one unacceptable commercial variation.