In the cosmetics industry, manufacturers must ensure the integrity of sensitive products and conduct various checks, including quality control, component inspection, packaging verification, and label reading. As they scale up production, there is a need to automate the manufacturing and shipping processes. Compliance requirements also mandate manufacturers to guarantee perfect product tracking and traceability. To facilitate this transition to mass serialization, Cira offers the integration of vision systems and smart code readers capable of accelerating processes through quick, reliable, and secure checks.
On high-speed production lines (e.g., producing 200 bottles per minute), manual inspection of products by operators is challenging, time-consuming, and lacks reliability. However, the inspection of skincare products like deodorants involves numerous checks, including foreign object detection, cap presence/absence and integrity, color control, label inspection on different product faces, and verification of codes and lot dates. By offering the possibility to automate these checks, industrial vision systems enhance production efficiency and enable teams to be redeployed to other more complex tasks within the company.
In the cosmetics sector, various kits are also offered for sale, such as sun protection and after-sun kits. The significant variability in the orientation and positioning of packaging, the presence of reflective surfaces, and the complexity of the patterns to be inspected make assembly inspection particularly challenging. This is a challenge addressed by industrial vision solutions backed by Deep Learning, which can locate, identify, and classify numerous elements from a single image captured on production lines. Easily programmable and capable of learning, these solutions conduct thorough checks of final assemblies, regardless of variations in size, shape, or surface type of the products. The manufacturer can thus automate the verification of packaging using a single tool that can be configured and adapted as needed.
The integrity of packaging is crucial to prevent contamination of sensitive products such as cosmetics. Additionally, well-maintained packaging directly contributes to preserving a strong brand identity. However, on production lines, there can be a wide variety of packaging with different sizes, colors, and orientations. Vision systems equipped with traditional Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies can read text on high-speed lines but can be challenging to program when there are changes in the size, angle, color, or patterns of the packaging. When combined with Deep Learning technology, OCR-equipped industrial vision systems can read challenging OCR codes on high-speed production lines, regardless of the type of change introduced (packaging modification, introduction of a new product, etc.).
Similarly, the inspection of seals and tamper-evident rings is crucial to preserve the integrity of a product. The industrial vision systems offered by Cira detect defects and verify packaging using 3D laser displacement sensors that ensure the security seals have no flaws (bubbles, folds, or tears).
The identification of each component in complex objects like makeup palettes is challenging for traditional industrial vision. That's why Cira integrates Deep Learning-based industrial vision systems capable of discerning subtle variations in color and texture. They also accurately detect missing, mispositioned, or underfilled products.
Ensuring high-quality tracking of sensitive products is imperative for consumer safety. Particularly vulnerable to the risks of counterfeiting, cosmetic products undergo numerous meticulous checks. To guarantee accurate traceability of packaging, industrial vision systems must swiftly identify and locate products in the logistics chain before they reach the market. The vision solutions offered by Cira encompass a range of tools to achieve comprehensive product tracking: vision systems and image-based 2D and 3D code readers provide a suitable response for simple and robust traceability. Image-based code readers can read 1D and 2D codes, regardless of the quality or orientation of the barcodes. As for vision systems combined with OCRMax technology, they read alphanumeric date/lot codes and store information in a database, enabling end-to-end product traceability throughout the logistics chain.