Preventing recalls Acoustic sensors detect glass breakage here food or beverages are filled into containers made of glass, it can happen that they burst. The resulting shards sometimes contaminate other units in the immediate vicinity. If the glass breakage is not detected immediately, the affected products can end up on the market and, in the worst case, all the way to the end customer. At the latest then, elaborate and cost-intensive recalls of entire batches are necessary, which not only annoy the customer base, but also cause lasting damage to the manufacturer's reputation. To prevent this problem from arising in the first place, Schwerin-based ds automation gmbh has developed special acoustic sensors. These can be easily integrated into existing lines and reliably detect glass breakage incidents by signal level and frequency characteristics. Depending on the degree of automation, the line is then either stopped for manual inspection or the affected units are automatically ejected from the filling line. The sound sensors used here are dustproof and watertight in accordance with protection class IP67 and made entirely of stainless steel, so that they also meet the high hygiene requirements in food and beverage production. If the glass breakage is not detected immediately, the affected products can end up in the shops and, in the worst case, all the way to the end customer (photo: Laboko/Shutterstock.com)

Technology/IT ¦ IDM The sound sensors are dustproof and waterproof according to protection class IP67 and are made entirely of stainless steel (photo: ds automation gmbh) QA via airborne sound "The sensors for glass breakage detection are special microphones that continuously monitor their environment," explains Christian Schröder, developer at ds automation gmbh. "They detect any deviation from a noise situation defined as normal." For this purpose, specific trigger thresholds are defined in advance, within which the usual background noise of the production line moves. The noise generated by...