Evaluation of defects in the seal region of food packages using the ultrasonic contrast descriptor, ΔBAI
✍ Scribed by Ayhan Ozguler; Scott A. Morris; William D. O’Brien Jr.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 261 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0894-3214
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
A rapid, dependable method of on-line package inspection will allow wider implementation of energy-and material-ef®cient retortable pouches and trays, by reducing inspection costs. To evaluate high-frequency ultrasonic imaging as a sensing method, the 17Á3 MHz ultrasonic pulse-echo Backscattered Amplitude Integral (BAI) method was used to visualize and evaluate major defects (channels and product inclusions, which compromise the seal integrity and must be reliably inspected) in the seal area of ¯exible food packages. The focus of this study was to evaluate the image contrast, denoted DBAI, for various packaging materials, defect types and sizes. Channel (6±100 mm in diameter) and inclusion defects (strands of mouse tail tendons, 20±150 mm) were created in the seal area of allplastic and foil-containing packaging ®lms. It has been shown that there is a direct relationship between the defect size and DBAI value, and that different defect types and packaging materials have a signi®cant impact on the DBAI value. The utility of DBAI for detecting defects makes it a useful and reliable sensing method for package inspection.