18 June 1998: Lax & Shaw in Leeds, UK is the first company capable of offering its customers the facility of gauging the bore of every bottle produced along with statistical analysis reporting include…
18 June 1998: Lax & Shaw in Leeds, UK is the first company capable of offering its customers the facility of gauging the bore of every bottle produced along with statistical analysis reporting included in every delivery. According to a recent company press release, this has been achieved through the purchase of 2 Ultrabore systems from System E Controls Ltd. of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. The Ultrabore is a new patented product that has been designed to be fitted to existing on-line plug gauges such as the Emhart Powers Dual Head Gager or other similar systems. By removing the existing go/no-go plug and replacing it with the Ultrabore it is now possible to inspect the bore at 4 heights and 8 radial positions giving internal diameter readings which in turn give an ovality reading at each height plus a profile/taper analysis. The heights within the bore can be programmed in the software along with the nominal and tolerance values. The software within the system has been developed so it can be adapted to suit the customers requirements, giving detailed analysis of each individual bore inspected or more sophisticated SPC capability (Statistical Process Control). It is possible to have an Ultrabore in the cold end on every line, networked to a central control station/server allowing the user to monitor and record every bore in production 24 hours, 7 days a week. Presently the only information a manufacturer is getting back from his pluggers are how many bottles have been inspected and of those how many have passed and how many have failed. The Ultrabore continues this function but the manufacturer can now analyse where in the bore the bottle has failed and more importantly by monitoring any trends i.e. bores getting larger or smaller over a period of production he can make the necessary adjustments at the hot end before bottles are actually rejected, which obviously leads to less waste and more profitable production management. The system, claims System E, becomes invaluable in the inspection of spirit and wine bottles where there is a significant requirement to control the bore as this kind of bottle is normally corked or fitted with anti-tamper/anti-refill devices. The production of these kind of bottles is not normally of a great speed although the Ultrabore system will measure bores at a rate of upto 150 bottles per minute.