Beer particle and bubble inspection
Visible-particle inspection in bottled beer starts with the product recipe and the optical path through the filled bottle. Use separate baselines; record where transmission becomes insufficient.
Food & beverage // Bottling & canning
Describe your lineBottling and canning line inspection in South Africa
Beer, soft drinks, water and wine run on fast lines with returnable glass, PET and cans. These are the camera stations that sit on them, what each catches, and the rules behind the checks.
// Short answer
Bottling and canning line inspection checks the container at the stage where a fault is visible: returnable crates before handling, individual glass bottles after washing, filled bottles after capping and labelling, and packs after grouping. Can-end codes and visible can damage have their own checks. The scopes below explain the camera views, integration and limits. Some have dated indicative budgets; others require sample assessment before quotation. None replaces chemical-cleanliness, microbiological or hidden-integrity tests.
// On South African lines
Returnable glass, PET and cans on the same site
Beverage lines in South Africa handle three container families, often in one plant. Returnable glass is a large share of beer: HEINEKEN South Africa reported investing R2.3bn in its returnable bottling programme here (HEINEKEN, 2024). Soft drinks run on PET and glass in many plants; Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa runs 11 manufacturing plants across six provinces (CCBA). Cans come from local can makers, with beverage can plants in Johannesburg and Pretoria (Nampak). Wine is a large domestic market as well as an export one, according to SAWIS sales statistics (SAWIS, 2026).
What these lines share is speed, changeovers between brands and pack sizes, and faults that are cheap to catch at the line and expensive in the trade: a foreign bottle that jams the filler, a short multipack, a can with yesterday’s code, a crooked label on an export bottle. Each station on this page is placed straight after the step that can cause its fault.
Plan inspection around the container’s state
An empty transparent bottle, a full coloured bottle and a wet returnable bottle are different imaging problems. Place the empty-container check before filling, while the interior and finish are accessible. After filling, product colour and foam can hide features that were visible before; after labelling, artwork can block a side view. A single late camera therefore cannot be assumed to cover the earlier empty-container requirement.
| Line position | Check | Failure example | Disposition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before the filler | Empty glass/PET interior and finish in available views | Residual material or a visible finish fault | Reject before filling; keep separate tests for hidden damage |
| After closing | Cap present, height, tilt and visible tamper features | Wrong or incomplete closure | Hold before labelling; torque and seal integrity need their own tests |
| After coding and labelling | Correct product, date, batch and readable code | Correctly printed information for another SKU | Compare against the approved production order |
| Before case or pallet release | Pack identity and visible count; label association | Mixed product or carton-to-pallet mismatch | Reconcile held units and downstream aggregate labels |
Consider a hypothetical change from a clear still-water bottle to a coloured beverage in the same bottle family. The bottle outline remains familiar, but fill-level contrast, cap identity, label artwork and date rules change. The release procedure should acknowledge the new recipe, inspect a correct first-off pack and challenge a wrong label and wrong code. A cap-presence pass must not override a label mismatch. This example describes logic, not a commissioned line or measured performance.
Condensation, foam and spray often change the image after a stoppage. Test the first product after restart as well as settled running conditions. Keep the window clean and check that washing has not moved the light or camera. A returnable-bottle sample set should distinguish permitted scuffing from the visible damage being rejected. If permitted scuffing obscures the critical region, the inspection result is unresolved; improving the image or adding another method is preferable to making the threshold permissive.
Maintain a release record that names the product, recipe revision, packaging revision and the source of expected code data. The camera and coder can agree with each other while both use the wrong order. An independent first-off check against the approved specification closes that common-cause gap. R146 regulations 11 and 12 in the cited dated text address batch identification and date marking; confirm the applicable product rules when approving the artwork. (South African food labelling regulations R146, published 1 March 2010)
Use the food-premises hygiene programme to define access for cleaning, permitted chemicals, window inspection and restart checks. R638 is the local regulatory context; it does not prescribe a universal camera maintenance interval. (South Africa: food premises and transport hygiene regulations R638, 2018) Include an obscured-view challenge after cleaning and a known failure through the reject device. If confirmation fails, hold the affected flow according to the plant procedure rather than counting a software reject as a removed pack.
The commissioning report should preserve separate results for identity, visible defects, text correctness and physical removal. Record acceptable packs incorrectly held as well as faulty packs released, with the relevant tested population for each. Keep the challenge pack identity and image so a future maintenance team can reproduce the test. A model confidence score is useful diagnostic evidence but is not the same as the probability that a customer receives a defective pack.
Estimate the cost of a missed fault at the stage it escapes: filling material and labels added to a defective container, time spent sorting finished cases, destruction or rework of held stock, and the administrative cost of tracing affected batches. An early unnecessary reject has a different cost from an incorrectly released finished case. Use those distinctions to set priorities; no saving percentage is assumed here. The linked production solutions cover station layout and assessment inputs, while this industry guide defines which checks belong at each process stage.
// Line solutions
Line solutions for these lines
Compare the inspection scope and HIKROBOT configuration. Where a sourced budget is available it is shown in rand excluding VAT; other scopes are quoted after sample assessment.
| Line solution | Faults it catches | HIKROBOT configuration | Indicative budget (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crate inspection | Missing, foreign and capped bottles; debris in empty crates | Overhead camera + VisionMaster, crate diverter | R 250 000 – R 1 370 000 |
| Multipack inspection | Missing bottles or cans, missing caps, wrong product in the pack | Top-view vision sensor, or top + side cameras, pusher | R 80 000 – R 660 000 |
| Can inspection | Missing, smudged or wrong can-end codes; visible dents in the can body | OCR vision sensor; four side cameras + VisionMaster DL | R 100 000 – R 1 180 000 |
| Wine bottle label inspection | Missing, skewed or wrong labels; capsule or seal missing; code unreadable | 4–6 area cameras around the bottle + VisionMaster, reject | R 350 000 – R 1 170 000 |
| Returnable glass bottle inspection | A mouth is visibly chipped; Something remains at the base | HIKROBOT cameras positioned for mouth, base or sidewall tasks with task-specific lighting and PLC quality release | Quotation after sample assessment |
// Checks
The checks these lines use, and where each stops
The same inspection applications appear across these lines; each links to the page that explains it in depth.
| Check | Application | What it catches | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottle and crate presence | Presence and counting | Missing, foreign and capped bottles in crates; missing bottles or cans in packs | Look-alike foreign bottles; anything hidden under film or inside a bottle |
| Empty bottle inspection | Empty container inspection | Chips on the finish, objects on the base, residue in returned glass | Defects a camera cannot see through the glass from the chosen view |
| Fill, cap and seal | Fill level, cap and seal | Under-fill on clear containers, missing or crooked caps, broken tamper bands | Fill in cans and opaque containers; leaks |
| Codes on cans and bottles | OCR/OCV and code inspection | Missing, unreadable or wrong date and lot codes | Barcode grading to ISO standards |
| Labels | Label inspection | Missing, crooked and wrong labels; capsule and seal present | Artwork approval; adhesion over time |
// South African rules
Rules that set the outcome these checks support
The rules require the outcome; a camera is one way to check it on every unit.
- Clean containers and foreign matter. The food hygiene regulations require containers used for food to be clean, treat foreign matter and glass as contamination, and bar the sale of cans that are dented or damaged so that the food may be contaminated (R638, 2018). Crate, empty bottle and can checks support this on every unit.
- Quantity in the pack. Prepackages must meet the legal metrology requirements, and automatic fillers must be able to detect short fills and keep records (Legal Metrology Regulations, 2018). A multipack count and a fill check support this; weighing stays the proof of contents.
- Wine marking. The Liquor Products Act regulations set how lot identification is marked, with exemptions for certified wine and for the filling date on glass (Liquor Products regulations, annotated 2019). A label station checks that the marking your product carries is present and correct.
Connect the bottle checks across the line
A bottle can pass one process check and fail another. Keep the point of inspection and the physical reject associated with the property being checked.
| Decision or event | Check or action | Acceptance boundary |
|---|---|---|
| After washing | Inspect specified visible empty-bottle regions | Not a chemical-residue or hygiene validation. |
| After capping | Check visible cap seating and tamper-band condition | Not cap torque or leakage. |
| After labelling/coding | Match the expected label and variable print | A readable wrong code remains wrong. |
| After grouping | Verify visible pack or crate positions | Occluded layers are outside that view. |
Validate the relevant pack families, normal production variation and each specified defect. Record results by lane or product family where those conditions change the inspection.
Returnable glass · Filled PET water bottles · Pack completeness
// FAQ
Questions about bottling and canning line inspection
Which inspections does a bottling line in South Africa usually need first?
Start where faults reach the trade: a code check after the coder, a cap and fill check after the capper, and, on returnable lines, a crate check before the washer and after the caser. Which comes first depends on your complaint and recall history; a short site walk and samples decide it.
Can one camera station cover several checks on a bottling line?
Only when the checks are in the same place and the same view. A cap and fill check share a station after the capper; a label and a code on the same face can share one camera. Crates, cans and labels sit at different points, so they are separate stations linked to the same PLC.
How much does inspection on a bottling or canning line cost in South Africa?
The established bottling and canning scopes give dated indicative installed budgets, from about R 80 000 for a single vision sensor check to over R 1 000 000 for multi-camera stations, excluding VAT. Those figures apply only to the priced scope described on each page. The returnable-bottle scope is quoted after optical and integration assessment.
Do these stations work on returnable PET as well as glass?
Yes, with their own recipes. PET reflects light differently from glass and crates differ in layout, so returnable PET crates and bottles are included in the sample test alongside glass.
Can a camera check fill level in cans?
No. A camera cannot see the liquid inside a can or an opaque container. Cans are checked for fill with X-ray or high-frequency fill level inspection, which addaScan does not supply; the can station here checks the code on the can end and visible dents.
Sources
- HEINEKEN South Africa moving to 65% returnable glass for beer portfolio in 2024 (company release, checked 2026-10-02)
- Coca-Cola Beverages Africa invests R365m in new high-speed line in South Africa (company release, checked 2026-10-02)
- Nampak beverage cans and ends (company page, checked 2026-10-02)
- SAWIS: domestic sales and export of all wine, February 2026 (industry statistics, checked 2026-10-02)
- Liquor Products Act 60 of 1989: regulations, annotated 05/2019 (regulation (SAWIS copy), checked 2026-10-02)
- Regulations governing general hygiene requirements for food premises (R638, 2018) (gazette, checked 2026-10-02)
- Legal Metrology Regulations (GN 877, 2018) (gazette, checked 2026-10-02)
- South African food labelling regulations R146, published 1 March 2010 (dated text: definitions and regulations 7, 11, 12; not a consolidated legal opinion; read 2026-10-27)
// Next step
Tell us what runs on your bottling or canning line
Describe the products, the line and the fault you need caught. We test on your samples and reply with a feasibility note and a budget.