Better cans thanks to better data

KarT sp. z o.o. was founded by Włodzimierz Kardasz in 1983 as a company offering metalworking services to regional entrepreneurs. Over the years, the commitment of the owner and professionalism of the employees have established the company as a reliable, recommendable supplier.

Starting with just a few employees, KarT has become a company operating across European markets and according to European standards. In addition to the treatment of metals and plastics, tools servicing and injection moulding, the company now specialises in production automation and supplying customers from various industries with customised technical and technological solutions.

More than 30 years of experience on the market and an ambitious and experienced staff has enabled the company to design and implement the most complex projects. With an individual and unconventional approach to their tasks, and the willingness to face their challenges with open minds, KarT have been able to supply customers with products and services of the highest quality that fully respond their individual needs.

KarT manufactures for example machines for the food industry, one of them is can seaming machines. A common problem for industrial food producers using cans for beverages, foodstuffs or other products is leakiness, which results from poor quality of the double can seam. A critical factor.

One frequent cause for a poor seam quality is the retooling of the machine. When different types of can are manufactured, with different height, diameter or seam type, the machines have to be adjusted to that. This causes long machine setup times, i. e. it takes some time until the optimum setting is achieved, and the cans are produced standardly. On top of this, seam quality had to be inspected destructively until now. The result: increased wastage. 

...thanks to the turntable, we can carry out automated measurements, which saves time and allows us to perform automatic inspections of very complex parts.This made KarT search for an innovative vision system with which to equip their new can seaming machines – one that can detect the quality of the can seam on the basis of its external geometry and at the same time detect potential leakiness. The cans are thus produced correctly faster, which reduces both time and wastage. Furthermore, they are inspected non-destructively now.

The requirements for such a system set-up are complex. It’s necessary to gather a lot of data, such as the dimensions of the can seam, both the good ones, indirect ones and incorrect ones. The solution: capture the data with a 3D scanner beforehand and then save nominal dimensions in an additional software, from where it can then be used to create a database as a basis to set up a vision system that can check and analyse can seam quality. 

Before acquiring a 3D scanner, the company carried out an on-site test of various systems and sensors. After having captured very precise and real can dimensions with different scanners, KarT decided on a SmartScan with interchangeable measuring fields. 

Adam Dubowski, Quality Inspector at KarT, comments the decision: "As we already had a coordinate measuring machine from Hexagon before, it was obvious for us to consider another Hexagon system. Measurement automation is supported in this system by a TT-100 turntable with a one hundred kilogram carrying capacity". 

Adam Dubowski regularly works with the SmartScan and is very satisfied with the use and the decision to invest in the scanner. “One decisive criterion for us was the accuracy of the scanner in a gauge block measurement,” says Adam Dubowski. “It was crucial for us that the accuracy is about 15 microns, and the scanner fulfils this requirement. We carried out a simple onsite test with different scanners which helped us to decide. Additionally, this test showed us the technical expertise of the providers - their knowledge of the system and identification with their product.”

“We also received indepth training covering all our questions. And thanks to the turntable, we can carry out automated measurements, which saves time and allows us to perform automatic inspections of very complex parts”, Adam Dubowski summarises.