According to the manufacturer, Inspekto S70 is the first stand-alone, ready-to-use machine vision system for industrial quality assurance. Unlike customized vision solutions that require a complex and time-consuming integration process, Inspekto S70 is a fully configured device that is ready to use out of the box and only requires integration into the production line. This feature provides an advantage for manufacturers who need a reliable quality assurance solution quickly, without having to wait for the lead times of traditional machine vision projects, which often take several weeks or even months to develop and integrate.

For the quality inspection of FFP2 protective masks that has now been implemented, the task for Inspekto S70 was to reliably detect defects on the ultrasonically welded masks, on the metal nose clip, on the company and CE logo and on the welded strips. The inspection of the metal nose clip is of crucial importance, as defective metal strips could permanently damage the cutting machine in the production line.

The past few weeks have shown that the results of the installation are very positive, according to Inspekto, as the system was able to carry out precise and reliable quality assurance: Masks that showed defects in the inspected areas or faulty metal strips were reliably detected.

Inspekto S70 reliably detects defects on the ultrasonically welded masks, the metal nose clip, the company and CE logo and the welded straps. © Inspecto

"Manual inspection inevitably has a very high error rate, which is unacceptable in the production of critical protective equipment such as face masks," emphasizes Jürgen Eichinger, Operations Manager at Univent Medical GmbH. "Quality is at the heart of our entire production process. That's why we needed a flexible image processing solution that is quick to set up and easy to operate. With Inspekto, we have found the ideal partner for this task."

"We are very proud to be part of the effort to meet the enormous demand for high-quality protective masks in these turbulent times. One of Inspekto's goals is to enable all small and large manufacturers of such protective equipment to have a first-class automated solution for their quality assurance," explains Ofer Nir, CEO of Inspekto. "We recognized early on that manufacturers needed a flexible and cost-effective option to inspect their products and that this need would eventually become critical. Now that moment has arrived and we have an excellent technical solution for this task."

Vanessa Pfau, Manager for the Inspekto site in Germany, is convinced that the flexibility of the Inspekto systems will also be crucial for manufacturers after the pandemic: "Inspekto S70 does not work on a product-specific basis, but learns the properties of a new product autonomously in around an hour from just 20 good parts and then displays all anomalies during the inspection. As a result, the system can be used very flexibly to inspect a variety of different objects," emphasizes Pfau.

"The production line for FFP2 protective masks was only realized a few months ago," adds Pfau. "The system was developed with funding from the German government to support manufacturers in adapting their production lines for protective equipment. With Inspekto S70, it was possible to train the properties of FFP2 masks very quickly. However, in the event of future production changes, these systems are also able to test completely different products."

Inspekto S70 could soon also be used in the production of other medical devices for quality assurance after the current pandemic, according to the company.