Again in this year the C2 American Innovation Awards - carried out by the well-known international Magazine C2 Coating & Converting - for the most innovative products, processes and technologies from the areas of processing paper, film and foil has taken place. From a total of 45 nominated technology concepts the jury experts voted for the most innovative technologies of 2012. In the end the judges chose the six most innovative products, processes and technologies. ISRA VISION was able to prevail against the other nominees with its latest features “Missing-Feature-Detection” and “Pattern Suppression” and was honored with the renowned industry award. ISRA has proved its high level of innovation and technological leadership.

The highly developed  optical inspection systems by ISRA VISION offer 100% in-line inspection in all converting processes. The systems have successfully established a standard for detection of defects in converted material. The technological enhancement with innovative and unique "Missing Feature Detection" and "Pattern suppression" tools offers users the ability to detect missing structural elements in materials. It is now possible to detect defects even on textured surfaces thanks to new pattern suppression algorithms.

Typically, line camera inspection systems work with an upper and lower limit value for the intensity values of each line. As soon as the values are outside of the normal range, a defect will be the result. Defect classification is based exclusively on this "threshold value information". Until now, conventional systems could handle such volumes of data (which are extremely high in the converting industry) only with simple algorithms.  The ISRA technology is a huge step further in the evolution. The method described is only used as a forecasting feature. The systems are able to handle more information compared to conventional systems due to the high computing power. This enables the accurate evaluation and generation of detailed information by using 2D images. With highly developed image analysis algorithms that supplement the comprehensive inspection systems, there is a significantly wider range of analysis options in real-time than what has been available using traditional methods.

In order to include the detection of defects and irregularities that lurk in bumpy material with textured surfaces, the application ranges of the inspection systems can be expanded even more. The inspection adjusts automatically to the surface structure. Complex filters are used for 2D images that can also be in color - a unique feature of ISRA VISION systems that stands out from the competition.

The innovative "Missing Feature Detection" (MFD) method allows the inspection of textured material and identifies the missing structural elements distinctively. Irregularities or changes in the structure are detected reliably with the 2D image information. As such, the range of applications for inspection systems also includes functional properties.Yet another method for the inspection of textured material serves to suppress structures. Innovative and highly developed algorithms for defect detection providethe ability to recognize light and dark defect points. The structured stripes are suppressed and no longer disrupt as pseudo defects. As an additional feature, the high-speed band measurement simultaneously provides the ability to measure and statistically analyze the distances between the strips in a special channel width. 

The first four systems that employed the new features "Missing Feature Detection" (MFD) and "Pattern Suppression" have been running successfully for months in production applications at various customers. The new features are in use at applications such as the production of separator foils for batteries, coating filter materials and food packaging materials. Due to the universal variety of applications, the flexibility of the system and its  high performance characteristics, ISRA also expects further demand at other locations.