The firm is trying to extend the technology to find contaminants and materials that are harder to detect with conventional methods.
Simon King, global head of sales service and marketing at Eagle Product Inspection, explained the ins and outs of X-ray technology when used with glass packaging to FoodQualityNews.com.
“Four view coverage with an X-ray system is basically using a wider range or a larger number of X-ray beams to cover or penetrate an object, so in this case a glass jar, that gives you multiple views of that particular product which is intended to increase the contaminant detection capability of the x-ray.
“It’s a concept that’s used where food manufacturers are particularly sensitive to the threat of small glass shards or contaminant getting into the product.”
He added that X-ray technology is used for under-fill and over-fill detection and the weight of products by determining mass and track and trace features.
Traditional inspection systems using horizontal X-ray beams could not fully inspect blind spots in the crown of jars, due to the curve-shaped bottoms in glass containers and varying width of their walls.