Find Faults Before Anyone Else Does

Source from:  worldtobacco.co.uk 10/08/2007

First and foremost, quality control systems are an investment in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Today, the success of a brand depends more than ever on its 'capital': satisfied smokers who stay loyal to 'their' particular brand because they know they can depend on its quality. Just one disappointment with a single cigarette can cause even a loyal smoker to try a different brand. To help our customers do full justice to that loyalty, Hauni's policy has always been to focus on developing sophisticated sensor technologies designed to monitor production and maintain product quality at all important points in the process, from the bale loading point to the finished cigarette, for top quality can be achieved only by looking at the production process as a whole. A tiny particle of non-tobacco related material (NTRM) hidden in the tobacco can be enough to spoil the look and taste of a cigarette. But tobacco is a natural product and is handled by many people from the tobacco harvest right through to cigarette production. It's impossible to prevent contamination of tobacco with NTRM. Hauni offers customers a system that scrutinizes tobacco on its journey through the cigarette factory, a comprehensive array of detection units which use the latest technology to hunt down and eject even the smallest particles of NTRM. Apart from being in the consumer's interests, this also benefits customers from the technical point of view and contributes towards their success on the market. The technical solutions come in a variety of forms, Hauni's latest development in the primary sector being TOBACCOSCAN 5 which represents a quantum leap in laser-based NTRM removal. This new four-colour laser system covers almost the entire light spectrum and features enhanced structure sorting. It reliably detects virtually all NTRMs, even those that were previously difficult or impossible to detect, and selectively ejects them with its 160 quick-response valves. Less than 0.3% tobacco is entrained with the NTRM. NTRM-wise the final check is done on the tobacco rod. MIDAS, Hauni's microwave-based weight control system, is also capable of searching out even the tiniest scraps of unwanted material such as lumps of casing, stems, leaf scraps, plastics, rubber or foil that may have gone undetected. The unit can sense weights as light as 16mg depending on NTRM type. Sub-standard cigarettes detected by MIDAS are individually ejected. Yet removing foreign material is just one aspect of quality monitoring. To achieve the best results for their customers, cigarette manufacturers have filled volumes with quality criteria, most of them visual. Apart from targeting flaw prevention by perfecting all quality-relevant subassemblies and systems - examples include heated nozzles for even ink application, a unique zigzag feeder principle plus an improved trimmer unit to minimize standard deviation and triacetin applicator nozzles for less tip to tip application variability - developers at Hauni have also given much of their attention during the last few decades to online quality systems designed to measure parameters like lit end density, ventilation, appearance, pressure drop, moisture, weight, hard and soft spots and cigarette diameter. A classic amongst Hauni systems is the MAX filter assembler's inspection drum, a pneumatically operated system that has been in place for many years measuring airtightness, ventilation (an important factor for tar content) and pressure drop, ejecting any products with flaws like holes or ragged edges. The filter assemblers in PROTOS cigarette making lines also feature OTIS, a system that appeals to Hauni customers on account of its simplicity and extreme usefulness. OTIS uses LEDs to detect irregularities on the circumference of a cigarette, typically flawed wraps. Of all the quality measurement systems on the MAX, the one that hardly a manufacturer would want to be without is the optical end-densing monitor. It appeared at the start of the nineties and is designed to monitor densed end quality using light guides. In the space of just a few years, Hauni's microwave-based MIDAS weight control system has not only achieved a sales figure of 2000 but has also managed to establish itself as the industry standard, practically ousting the nuclear scanner from its prominent position. The system controls average cigarette weight by measuring the tobacco rod's dielectric characteristics and is even more accurate and effective than its predecessor. MIDAS provides benefits such as non-speed-related action and waste-reducing potential as well as hard and soft spot detection, and can be fitted to existing machinery. Quality system automation took a leap ahead with the introduction of Hauni's new PROTOS-M generation and MERLIN. An example is the print position control system which completely eliminates displaced printmarks by automatically controlling the print position via the die roller in the printer as well as its distance from the cut performed by the cut-off. Cigarette diameter is another parameter that is controlled online: by ODIM. Measurements are taken with a light source and a camera, allowing the diameter to be determined using light-sensitive pixels. As cigarettes are not quite as round as one might expect, their mean diameter is calculated from 1,000 measurements taken by a revolving sensor unit. Plans are in place to introduce the same principle to control rod diameter on the AF-KDF 4 filter maker in early 2008. A system that redefines the capabilities of visual sensing applications is ORIS-XR, a system suitable for use in cigarette as well as filter manufacturing. It is used to verify a product's immaculate appearance by detecting visible defects like spots, stem holes, double paper layers and creases as well as monitoring prints. Performance-wise ORIS-XR is clearly superior to its predecessor with 100 times better image resolution and the capability to perform 360° full-surface scans. Shots are taken at frequencies proportional to rod speed, reaching rates up to 64,000 lines per second. As a result blemishes as small as 0.7 mm across can be identified. To keep waste to an absolute minimum, only the affected cigarettes are ejected. The sensor systems for the MERLIN multifilter maker are another area where Hauni has focused on obtaining measurable quality standards with sophisticated technology. This is the factor that makes it possible to produce multifilters at an astonishingly high speed, while at the same time ensuring they are all completely identical: same length, same composition. SEMO is the name of the one that makes sure the filter segments are the right length and in the right place when they arrive on the rod maker, and it is also capable of detecting any missing segments or ones that are skewed, upright or incorrectly positioned. Our developers have achieved that using camera technology. Measured line by line, different light reflexes and differences in intensity provide the required information. Humans find shades of white very hard to tell apart, and so do sensors. But with more and more customers asking for filters composed of segments with marginally differing specifications, an answer had to be found. A high-grade laser-based optical structure, powerful digital filters plus the latest signal processing technology are the elements that enable Hauni's MPC to sense the finest distinctions dependably. It can measure even the tiniest of irregularities in the rod and detect gaps that are no wider than a tenth of a millimetre. The relative location of the different rod elements is passed in signal form to the machine's control system which uses that signal to adjust the exact position of the cut. The law is not the only driving force behind cigarette manufacturers' commitment to achieving perfection in quality control. It's far more a question of satisfying smokers who are increasingly insisting on top quality for the money they pay. Along with improving cigarette production machinery, developing and optimizing quality control systems is an ongoing customer-oriented process at Hauni, and that also means taking advantage of the core competence of market leaders when we want to implement high tech applications. Particularly data processing systems, with their ability to handle immense volumes of information in next to no time, now put goals within our reach that only a few years ago seemed Utopian. Enditem