OPTICAL INSPECTION SYSTEM FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BANDED CIGARETTE PAPER

• Main Authors: PHAN D ANH, HOUCK ERNEST S, REYNOLDS BRADFORD CHARLES, FLETCHER THOMAS A, BOKELMAN GORDON H, SHYY YEU-HWA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.07.2009
• Subjects: APPARATUS FOR APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TOSURFACES, IN GENERAL; APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL; IMPREGNATING OR COATING OF PAPER; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; PAPER NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PAPER-MAKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PREPARATION THEREOF NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASSES D21C OR D21D; PRODUCTION OF CELLULOSE; PULP COMPOSITIONS; SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; TESTING; TEXTILES; TRANSPORTING; TREATMENT OF FINISHED PAPER NOT COVERED BY CLASS B31 OR SUBCLASS D21G

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a station optically inspecting banded cigarette paper by directing an elongated beam of white light laterally across a web of the cigarette paper. SOLUTION: The elongated beam impinges on the surface of the cigarette paper and forms reflections. A plurality of line scan cameras (84) containing linear CCD arrays receive the reflections and generate output signals. One or more processing units (72, 76) process the output signals to generate data indicative of the spacing between bands, the width of the bands, and the contrast of the bands. These calculations can be periodically transferred to a separate computer workstation over a network. The workstation generates statistical reports on the basis of the calculations, such as the band width, band spacing and band contrast as a function of lane number, and as a function of time. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT