In the food industry, careful inspection and temperature control of perishable food during production, transportation, storage, and sales are crucial. Contamination of cooked food and improper storage have triggered food decay alarms one after another, which highlights the need to strengthen process control.

Because human factors are generally involved in the food processing process, food processors need key operational automation tools, which can help reduce human errors and reduce costs. Thermal imaging cameras are such an ideal tool. Thermal imaging cameras can be used to automate non-contact temperature measurement in a variety of food processing applications. The followings are the specific applications of thermal imaging cameras in the food industry.

Working principle

The main components for non-contact temperature measurement in the food processing industry are thermal imaging cameras and related software. They act as "smart" non-contact sensors that perform 100% detection and measure the temperature of equipment, refrigerated products, and cooked food when they exit the cooking process.

An infrared thermal imaging camera is easy to operate, compact in appearance, and can be placed anywhere as needed. Can be used to detect package sealing and improve the efficiency of other food processing operations. The infrared thermal imager is equipped with firmware and a communication interface, which can ensure that the thermal imager can be used freely in the automatic process control. Third-party software makes it easy to integrate these tools into automated machine vision systems without the need for extensive custom control code.

The application of thermal imaging cameras in the food processing field continues to expand, including the following applications:

(1) Detect the food baked in the oven

(2) Detection of microwave-cooked meat

(3) Detection of microwave-dried parboiled rice and other grains

(4) Detect the proper temperature of the oven

(5) Proper filling of frozen meal packaging

(6) Check the tightness of the microwave meal cellophane

(7) Detect the cover glue of the outer packaging carton

(8) Monitoring the cold storage room and the freezer room

Equipment inspection

Thermal imaging cameras protect quality assurance and product safety. Thermal imaging cameras are the premier quality assurance (QA) tool. Controlling the quality and safety of cooked meat products is a true manifestation of the superior value of infrared thermal imaging technology. Install a fixed thermal imaging camera to record the temperature of the fried chicken fillet as it comes out of the continuous conveyor oven.

In addition to cooked food detection, thermal imaging cameras can also monitor conveyor ovens. Thermal imaging cameras can even be used as part of a feedback loop to help control the oven temperature. Another application of thermal imaging cameras in conveyor ovens is to monitor the temperature consistency of the baking belt of the entire conveyor oven.

If the heating element inside the electric oven fails, or the entire gas jet impacts the oven and heats unevenly. The temperature on the side of the product flow may decrease. This problem can be quickly discovered by using an infrared thermal imaging camera.

Such quality monitoring is more difficult to detect using traditional contact temperature sensors. Therefore, thermal imaging cameras can help correct product changes and improve product quality before many products are scrapped.

Packaging inspection

The software can be used to help the infrared camera locate objects and graphics in the image. Pattern matching can be applied to frozen food production. Thermal machine vision can use graphic recognition software to detect whether the food tray compartment is properly filled. One of the related applications is the automatic 100% inspection of the high-temperature sealed cellophane surface of the finished microwave meal.

Infrared thermal imaging cameras can detect the heat radiation emitted from the gaps in the high-temperature sealed cellophane encapsulated container. The temperature around the entire package can be detected using thermal images equipped with machine vision software.

This type of program matches the temperature of the geometric figure in the image to the temperature of the figure stored in the computer's memory. Another function of the system is to laser mark poorly sealed packages, so substandard products can be removed directly at the inspection station.

A problem that indirectly affects product safety is the integrity of packaging cartons, which are used to package and protect food containers. One of the most cost-effective ways to seal the outer packaging carton is to use high-temperature spot glue at the seams of the carton.

In the past, the integrity of the spot glue was determined by periodic sample destruction tests. But this method is time-consuming and expensive. Because the gel is heated, the thermal imaging camera can "see-through" the cardboard to check the pattern and size of the glued points.

The thermal imaging cameras can be set to detect the predefined area of the joint where the glue is used and to verify the size and temperature of the glue point.

The collected data is used to determine whether each packaging box is qualified, and unqualified packaging boxes can be immediately removed from the production line. These data can be automatically loaded into the QA system for trend analysis. If the number of unqualified boxes exceeds a certain value, an alarm will be issued.

Another application of thermal imaging cameras is to monitor container filling operations. Although this process is hardly a production safety issue, it does affect profitability and compliance. It is possible to predefine different areas of the container bottle to make it alarm, thereby removing the container bottle that is overfilled or underfilled. When the container bottle is made of dark glass or plastic, an infrared camera is a better choice than a visible light camera.

Automated measurement

At present, the application software available for infrared thermal imaging cameras has a variety of functions and can support automated food processing applications. This software complements and works together with the firmware integrated into the thermal imaging camera.

The imaging tools and libraries in these packages use independent hardware and languages to facilitate food processing engineers to quickly carry out thermal detection and system control. Thermal imaging cameras provide operators with different operating modes and support for correct temperature measurement under different conditions.

Two common functions in thermal imaging cameras are spot temperature measurement and area temperature measurement. Spot temperature measurement is to measure the temperature at a specific point. The area temperature measurement function divides a selected area of the tested object or field and usually provides the maximum, minimum, and average temperature values of the area. The temperature measurement range is usually selected by the user.

As a subsidiary function of the temperature measurement range, most thermal imagers allow the operator to set the chromaticity or grayscale to optimize the thermal imager image. In conveyor oven applications, the area temperature measurement function is usually used because cooked food scraps are often scattered on the conveyor belt. Programs can be set for the thermal imaging cameras to determine the minimum and maximum values in a predefined area.

If the temperature value of a certain point is outside the limit value predefined by the operator, the application running on the computer or programmable controller will immediately trigger an alarm to remind the operator to check the thermal image on the video display or computer to find Remove and remove defective products and/or adjust the baking temperature.

ThermTec can provide customers with a variety of thermal imaging cameras of excellent quality with excellent performance and easy operation. If you are interested in our products, you can search on our website for the corresponding understanding.

With excellent R&D technology and high-quality products, we have become one of the leading thermal temperature cameras manufacturers. We have rich experience in design and production, and we have also established a complete quality inspection system, which can control the quality of our products in an all-round way. At the same time, we will also provide thoughtful one-stop service and effective solution technology according to the actual needs of customers. If you want to buy our high-quality thermal imaging camera, please contact us immediately!