Method and apparatus for monitoring and detecting defects in plastic package sealing

1. An apparatus for monitoring and detecting thermal sealing defects, comprising:

a thermal imager mounted along a process line, the process line transporting an object having at least one recently created thermal-seal thereon;

a controller having an input and an output, the input being communicably coupled to the thermal imager for receiving thermal image data of the thermal-seal, the controller being programmed to create a blob pattern including only two colors of pixels from the thermal image data, and to detect at least one of a hot zone and a cool zone on the thermal-seal; and

a output device communicably coupled to the output of the controller, wherein the output device indicates the results of the seal detection.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the output device is a display depicting the seal detection.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the output device is an alarm activated upon the detection of at least one of the hot zone and the cool zone.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including an indexing device, external to the controller, wherein the indexing device is mounted along the process line and indexes the object relative to the thermal imager.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is programmed to thin the blob pattern created from the thermal image of the seal.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is programmed to fatten the blob pattern created from the thermal image of the seal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including a reference image for comparison to the thermal image data.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is programmed to index the object relative to the thermal imager by utilizing the blob pattern created from the thermal image of the object.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including a spectral filter to closely match the emission characteristics of the object.

10. A fault detection system for a thermal seal created by fusing a plurality of materials together on a process line, comprising:

a thermal imaging camera; and

a controller operatively coupled to the thermal imaging camera and an output device;

the controller being programmed to store application software relating to the fault detection system,

the controller being programmed to process an image of a thermal seal received from the thermal image camera and create a blob pattern including only two colors of pixels from the thermal image data, and

the controller being programmed to detect a fault in the thermal seal using the processed image by detecting at least one of a hot zone and a cool zone on the thermal seal.

11. The fault detection system of claim 10 , wherein the thermal imager includes a spectral filter to closely match the emission characteristics of a target material.

12. The fault detection system of claim 10 , wherein the controller is programmed to separate pixels of the thermal image into at least a first group and a second group.

13. The fault detection system of claim 10 , wherein the controller is programmed to compare the thermal image to a reference image.

14. A method of monitoring and detecting thermal sealing defects, comprising:

placing a thermal imager along a process line, the process line transporting an object having at least one recently created thermal-seal thereon;

capturing a thermal image of the thermal seal;

creating a blob pattern from the thermal image;

converting the thermal image to a plurality of pixels of only two colors in accordance with the blob pattern;

detecting at least one of a hot zone and a cool zone on the thermal seal using a controller; and

indicating the results of seal detection using an output device coupled to the controller.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising thinning the blob pattern created from the thermal image.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising fattening the blob pattern created from the thermal image.