Hyperspectral imaging is used in industry in areas where conventional image processing systems reach their limits. The Austrian software company Perception Park specialises in hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology and now offers complete solutions that are also intended for use in the packaging and recycling industries.
When plastics are recycled and returned to the production cycle, they must have a high degree of purity, especially for use in the food sector. However, plastic waste often poses challenges for detection systems in the sorting plant. This is where hyperspectral chemical colour imaging technology can help to identify materials precisely. Hyperspectral cameras are used to convert the chemical properties of a product or material into a spectral signature that functions like a chemical fingerprint. Using special software (Perception Studio), each chemical component is labelled with its own colour and made visible.
„Only hyperspectral technology can reliably detect which materials are being processed before they are recycled.“
Markus Burgstaller, Perception Park-Managing Director
The Graz-based company is regarded as a pioneer in the field of HSI technology. „We have developed HSI was the first company to be rethought and simplified in this way, that it can also be used by users without specialised knowledge. Today, it is used for leak testing cheese packaging as well as for the end-of-line inspection of packaged ready-made pizza,“ explains Burgstaller.
In the recycling sector, HSI helps with Differentiation of the material flow, bale inspection and detection of plastics in waste. The technology is also used in the wood, pharmaceutical and food industries as well as in numerous other industrial segments.
„Until now, software development has been our main business. Now we are going one step further and also offering complete solutions that can be integrated into existing systems.“
Ulrich SchönBusiness Development Manager
To this end, the company has Perception Head developed a measuring head that can be used to analyse material flows, and Perception Analyser, a stand-alone solution for batch control.
Hyperspectral cameras operate in the ultraviolet, infrared and visible wavelength range. The process used by Perception Park is called Chemical Colour Imaging (CCI) and makes it possible for the first time, the molecular properties of materials using image processing in real time to analyse.
This allows plastics of different compositions to be classified, which hardly differ visually, but are not chemically identical. With clear information about the material composition, it is then possible, for example, to separate plastic packaging into the correct recycling streams.
But the technology can do even more: it also allows the Determination of the chemical composition of packaged products through opaque, printed packaging. This benefits the pharmaceutical industry, as it allows the quality of tablets in a blister to be determined without having to open the packaging. The CCI information obtained can be processed by any image processing system.
SourcePerception Park
