Many printed products (currency, tickets, commercial publications, newspaper, pharmaceutical and food packaging, and more) require 100% print inspection (often in color) as part of their quality control process; many require this inspection multiple times during production.
Line Scanning for Improved Quality
From paper to cardboard, plastic or metal, in continuous webs or sheets, print inspection applications are well suited to line scan systems. Line scanning offers unlimited pixels in the direction of a web’s motion with zero smear even at high speeds, higher dynamic range, greater processing efficiency and much lower price/pixel. They also provide higher resolution with fewer cameras and inspect 100% of a moving surface without motion artifacts or the need to process frame overlaps. This helps to identify errors and defective products in real-time to maintain high quality levels and ensure customer satisfaction.
Line Scan Applications for Printing
- Color Control and Quality Inspection
Real time detection of color deviations, irregularities, and errors. - Print Image Inspection
Identify ink smudges, blurriness, missing letters, or unclear images. - Barcode and QR code verification
Verify readability, accuracy, and completeness.
- Inline Measurements
Measure distances, positions and sizes of print elements which is crucial in placing text, graphics and logos on packaging and labels. - Defect Detection
Identify surface defects, inclusions, tears and wrinkles of substrate before and after printing.
Teledyne Solutions
Teledyne is the industry leader in the design and production of line scan cameras and modules and offer a range of featurerich single line and multi-line cameras in a range of resolutions. They include advanced CMOS sensor technology and are available in GigE, Camera Link, Camera Link HS, and Fiber interfaces making them ideal for a wide variety of print applications.
Line Scan Imaging Modules
AxCIS Integrated Line Scan Modules
Teledyne’s AxCIS™ family of high-speed and highresolution fully integrated line scan imaging modules are easy-to-use Contact Image Sensors (CIS) which combine sensors, lenses, and lights all-in-one.
AxCIS is powered by Teledyne’s new CMOS image sensors, which deliver up to 120 kHz line rates for mono, 60 kHz x 3 for color, and 900 dpi resolution, so that print defects can be detected with precision at high speeds.
AxCIS can fit anywhere in your system, even with limited vertical clearance and it’s easy to install, with no complex alignment or calibration required and a single 24v power supply.
Its unique sensor design covers the entire field of view without missing pixels, providing a 100% seamless image without any interpolation. HDR imaging is achieved using dual rows with independent exposure control, enabling better detectability for highly reflective materials with improved dynamic range.
AxCIS is available in 400 mm, 800 mm and will soon be released in a 1500 mm width. Its Camera Link HS SFP+ fiber optic interface delivers high throughput data over standard low-cost, longlength fiber cables with immunity to EMI radiation for harsh industrial environments.
Line Scan Cameras
Linea ML 8k & 16k High-Speed Multispectral Line Scan Cameras
The Linea™ ML 8k & 16k multispectral cameras offer versatile capabilities to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of today’s challenging print inspection applications, like banknotes,
passports, ID cards, tamper-safe tickets and other high security print. In addition, these cameras can deliver spectrally independent outputs of the RGB and Near Infrared (NIR) channels which enables
accurate defect detection of both visible and nonvisible security attributes.
The Linea ML 8k & 16k multispectral high-speed cameras use Teledyne DALSA’s latest CMOS quadlinear sensors with a 5μm² pixel size. The 8k camera delivers a maximum line rate of 70 kHz x 4 using a CLHS point-to-point fiber optic interface, while the 16k camera achieves 75 kHz x 4 using a CLHS CX4 AOC interface. Combined with the Teledyne DALSA Xtium™2 CLHS series of high-performance frame grabbers, these 8k and 16k multispectral cameras, like all the Linea ML cameras, represent a breakthrough in data throughput in the industry.
Linea2 4k Multispectral 5GigE Line Scan Camera
Teledyne’s Linea™2 4k Multispectral 5GigE line scan camera takes vision systems to the next level with its performance and value, offering a 5GigE interface with five times the bandwidth of the Linea GigE camera.
The Linea™2 4k Multispectral 5GigE simultaneously captures high resolution RGB plus Near Infrared (NIR) multispectral images to reveal invisible features that cannot be detected using visible lighting alone. This makes it ideal for identifying hard to see defects, contaminants and security features in print inspection.
Packed into a small form factor, this camera is powered by Teledyne’s high-performance quadlinear CMOS sensor with a 4,096 x 4 pixel resolution and 7 x 7 μm pixel size. There are four sensor rows for red, green, blue, and NIR channels, with spectrally independent color and NIR outputs for minimal crosstalk. Unlike prism-based cameras, the Linea2 cameras do not require high-cost optical lenses which helps significantly reduce the overall vision system cost.
