Antares Vision S.r.l., the specialist for vision control systems and track & trace solutions, offers two customised solutions for product traceability and inspection systems for label control in the food and beverage industry: the Antares Label Check (ALC) and the Bottle Orientation System (BOS).
Tracking and tracing individual products on their way through the supply chain is no longer just an absolute must in the pharmaceutical industry. For a long time now Traceability and Transparency in the supply chain have also become important issues in the food and beverage industry. The future of companies in this sector is being jeopardised by a significant increase in counterfeit industrial and consumer goods increasingly under pressure.
However, it is not only counterfeit products that are forcing food and drink producers to rethink, but also the fact that faulty and contaminated products must never reach the end consumer. Recall actions and the resulting loss of image can lead to a loss of sales and immense extra costs. This is the latest point at which companies start to think about quality assurance and health protection systems for the end consumer.
Originally, Antares Vision only developed track & trace solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. However, the innovative Italian company with its headquarters in Travagliato near Lake Garda and a strong presence in Germany quickly realised that there was also a need for its systems in other sectors, such as the food and bottling industries.
Two solutions for labelling machines
Labelling is an important stage in primary and secondary packaging processes. Labels not only contain information for the end consumer, but are also helpful in terms of traceability and also ensure an attractive appearance. An important task for the food and beverage industry is labelling. Label check. With the Antares Label Check (ALC), Antares Vision offers a system that has been specially designed for checking labels on food packaging. The intelligent system, which was presented to the public for the first time at the Cibus-Tec trade fair in Parma in 2016, checks the Perfect positioning of the label on the packaging. As a special feature, the ALC also recognises and checks the correctness of the label dimensions.
With the second solution, the Bottle Orientation System (BOS), Antares Vision recently introduced another innovative labelling system that can be used for labelling bottles. Alignment of the bottles during the labelling process. The patented system ensures compliance with the increasingly complex regulations that have been created in the bottling industry in recent years.
Variably customisable system
The sophisticated BOS from Antares Vision requires only a single camera, which recognises the correct point on a bottle where the label needs to be positioned and transmits this information to the labelling machine, which in turn applies the label in the correct position. A particular advantage is the ability to customise the system itself to unique bottle designs and containers made from different materials. The high-performance system is predestined for machines with a production volume of up to 70,000 bottles/hour. It consists of licensed software that is simply integrated into the industrial PC and a camera as the only hardware component. The complete system can also be easily integrated into any existing labelling machine.
Optimum control of the food chain
„We are convinced that the food industry will invest in track & trace solutions in the future. This is because they ensure individual traceability and therefore the localisation of faulty or contaminated products without the need to recall the entire product batch,“ explains Paolo Gilberti. Antares Vision offers solutions for all printing and high-speed control functions, either in a compact Stand-alone unit or as Solution integrated into an existing system, which saves a considerable amount of space in packaging systems. Antares Vision is not only one of the global market leaders in the development of track & trace systems, but is also the only supplier to offer the Traceability of the entire process through the integration of logistics and warehouse management.
„Modern marketing and changes in consumer behaviour are leading to ever higher sales of glass and PET bottles, some with engraved or embossed logos. This is particularly the case for limited editions,“ explains Paolo Gilberti, Business Development Manager Industrial Vision Systems Division at Antares Vision in Italy.
The complete offer
Antares Vision develops, manufactures and distributes a complete range of inspection and track & trace systems as well as intelligent data management that optimally fulfil the most demanding requirements of the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics industries, medical technology and other users. The innovative company not only supplies Customised vision technology products The company is not only an expert in safety and traceability and e-pedigree in the pharmaceutical sector, but also offers a global service with eight branches and 50 distribution partners, focussing on supporting customers with commissioning, training and maintenance.
