Publish Time: 2026-01-08 Origin: Site
Detecting glass contamination within glass containers is a critical challenge for industries like food, beverage, and pharmaceuticals. While glass packaging offers safety and transparency, it also poses the risk of contaminating products with glass shards during manufacturing. X-ray inspection technology offers an effective solution to detect even the smallest glass fragments. In this article, we will explore how X-ray technology detects glass within glass, the challenges involved, and the advanced solutions that ensure product safety.
Glass fragments in food, medicine, or cosmetics pose significant health risks. Ensuring that these contaminants are detected and removed before products reach consumers is essential for manufacturers. Although glass packaging is hygienic, small fragments may accidentally contaminate the product during the filling process, making detection crucial.
X-ray machines detect glass fragments by passing radiation through an object, with denser materials like glass absorbing more X-rays. This creates a contrast in the image, where the glass fragment appears darker. CASSEL XRAY SHARK® X-ray machines with sideview units are designed to identify these contaminants, even when both the product and its packaging are made of glass.
In glass-in-glass situations, the product and the packaging have similar densities, which can make detection challenging. However, X-ray systems use high-resolution imaging and dynamic filtering to overcome this. These systems can detect glass fragments as small as 1-2mm, ensuring safety by identifying even the smallest contaminants before they reach consumers.
X-ray scanners detect impurities by analyzing the density differences in materials. The process works as follows:
High-Density Materials (e.g., glass) absorb more X-rays, appearing as darker areas in the X-ray image.
Low-Density Materials (e.g., liquids) absorb fewer X-rays, creating lighter areas.
When a foreign body, like a glass fragment, is present, it disrupts the absorption pattern, appearing as a darker spot in the image due to its higher density compared to the surrounding product.
Different foreign bodies show varying levels of contrast in the X-ray image:
High-Density Objects (e.g., metals) cause the strongest blackening, making them easily detectable.
Medium-Density Objects (e.g., plastics) cause moderate blackening, posing a greater challenge for detection.
Low-Density Objects (e.g., small glass fragments) cause minimal blackening but can still be identified based on the contrast difference.
The orientation of foreign bodies affects how well they are detected:
Unfavorable Orientation: A foreign body aligned with a small surface area in the X-ray beam direction absorbs fewer X-rays, leading to weak contrast and making detection harder.
Favorable Orientation: A foreign body aligned with a larger surface area in the beam direction absorbs more X-rays, creating stronger contrast for easier detection.
Dual-Beam Systems: To address unfavorable orientations, dual-beam technology uses two X-ray beams positioned at 90° angles to each other, ensuring that even poorly oriented objects are detected by providing different angles of absorption and contrast.
X-ray detectors rely on their ability to visualize materials with varying densities. For effective glass detection, the X-ray system must cover all areas of the product, including hard-to-reach spots like the bottom or walls, where glass fragments can hide. This is particularly challenging in glass containers, as fragments and packaging have similar densities, making it easy for the splinters to blend in with the glass.
Glass fragments have a higher density than most products, such as beverages, which causes them to absorb more X-rays. This results in darker areas in the X-ray image where the glass fragment displaces the surrounding product. The key to detection is the software’s ability to distinguish these subtle dark areas, which can be faint, from other elements in the image, like the bottle contours or cap.
To help the system accurately identify glass fragments, the software employs various filters and masking techniques. Contrast enhancement highlights blurred edges, making potential contaminants stand out against the background. Additionally, masks define the shapes of the product packaging, allowing the software to filter out harmless elements and focus on potential foreign objects. These masks are designed to adapt to different shapes, angles, and lighting conditions, ensuring reliable detection.
The following table summarizes the advantages and applications of multi-beam X-ray technology, demonstrating how multi-angle beams improve the detection of glass fragments, especially in complex shapes and at the bottom "punt" areas.
| Feature | Description | Application Area | Considerations | Technical Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-Beam X-Ray Beams | Using multiple X-ray beams from different angles to scan, ensuring fragments from all directions are detected. | Food, Pharmaceuticals, Beverage Packaging | Ensure accurate coverage of all scan areas from multiple angles to avoid missed detections. | Beam angles: 90°, 180°, 360° multi-angle |
| Side-View Scanning | Horizontal scanning allows the X-ray to penetrate the bottom and sidewalls of the container, ensuring detection at the bottom. | Glass Bottles, Canned Products | Ensure proper container placement to avoid misalignment that could lead to blind spots. | Detection range: up to container bottom and sides |
| Eliminating Blind Spots | Different beam angles help eliminate blind spots in the bottom of glass containers, ensuring every part is effectively scanned. | Irregular Bottles, Complex Bottle Bottom Designs | Use in combination with high-resolution imaging systems to optimize detection results. | Multi-angle scanning: 360° no dead spots |
Tip: When using multi-beam X-ray technology, make sure to calibrate each beam's angle and intensity to ensure full coverage, particularly in complex container shapes and bottom blind spots.
Side-view scanning is an advanced technique used in X-ray inspection for glass-in-glass detection. Unlike traditional top-down scanning, side-view scanning allows the X-ray system to capture better images through the side walls and base of the container. This technique is particularly useful for inspecting thicker or curved glass, such as the punt of a bottle. By scanning horizontally, the system can penetrate more effectively through the container, ensuring that even contaminants at the bottom or side of the glass are detected.
| Feature | Description | Application Area | Considerations | Technical Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamic Filtering | Algorithms filter out dense signals from the glass container edges, focusing on anomalies within the product. | Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical Packaging | Ensure dynamic filtering system accurately identifies edge areas to avoid false detections. | Algorithm Accuracy: Dynamic range adjustment to ±5% |
| High-Resolution Imaging | High-resolution X-ray imaging technology enhances the ability to detect small glass fragments (e.g., 1-2mm shards). | Precision Glass Fragment Detection | Adjust image resolution to ensure detection of all tiny shards, reducing the risk of missed detections. | Resolution: >1mm |
| Real-Time Image Processing | Real-time image processing technologies instantly feedback detection results, ensuring production line speed is not affected. | High-Speed Production Lines, High-Frequency Detection | Pair with efficient data processing systems to avoid image lag caused by high speeds. | Data Processing Speed: ≥500 images per second |
Tip: When using high-resolution imaging, combining it with dynamic filtering algorithms can significantly enhance image clarity and detection accuracy, especially on high-speed production lines.
X-ray inspection systems are essential for maintaining consumer safety and product quality across various industries. Key benefits include:
Consumer Safety: X-ray technology detects harmful glass fragments in food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals, preventing unsafe products from reaching consumers.
Brand Protection: By identifying contaminants early, X-ray systems help prevent costly product recalls, protecting brand reputation.
Quality Control: These systems also verify the integrity of packaging, ensuring it is free from defects and properly sealed to maintain product quality.
X-ray inspection systems help manufacturers comply with industry safety standards and regulations, ensuring product safety and traceability:
Regulatory Compliance: In the food and beverage industry, X-ray inspection supports compliance with standards like HACCP and BRC by detecting contaminants like glass.
Traceability: X-ray systems enhance traceability, allowing manufacturers to track the source of contaminants if necessary, and ensuring continuous compliance with safety standards.
Beyond glass detection, X-ray technology is widely used in multiple industries to detect foreign contaminants and maintain quality:
Food and Beverage:
Detects glass, metal, and stones in products.
Ensures product integrity and packaging quality.
Prevents harmful foreign material from reaching consumers.
Pharmaceutical and Medical:
Checks for contaminants in packaging, including glass shards.
Verifies the correct count of tablets or capsules.
Ensures packaging integrity to meet regulatory standards and prevent recalls.
Industrial Non-Destructive Testing (NDT):
Detects internal flaws in materials and components.
Identifies cracks or voids that could cause operational failure.
Used in predictive maintenance to minimize downtime and prevent equipment failure.
The future of X-ray systems for glass detection looks promising, with continuous advancements in X-ray tube technology, imaging systems, and software. These innovations will lead to even more powerful and sensitive X-ray systems capable of detecting smaller, irregularly shaped glass fragments. As technology evolves, X-ray inspection will become faster, more accurate, and more efficient, further enhancing product safety.
X-ray systems are increasingly integrating with other technologies, such as AI, data analytics, and IoT. AI-powered detection algorithms will continue to improve the accuracy of glass detection, while IoT-connected systems will allow for real-time monitoring and adjustments to the inspection process. This integration will help manufacturers optimize their production lines, improving both speed and accuracy.
Future X-ray systems will continue to enhance the speed and accuracy of glass detection. By improving detection sensitivity and reducing false rejection rates, these systems will ensure that even the smallest contaminants are detected while minimizing disruptions to the production line. This will lead to greater efficiency and lower costs for manufacturers, all while maintaining high safety and quality standards.
X-ray technology plays a crucial role in detecting glass contamination in glass containers, ensuring safety across industries like food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals. With advanced systems featuring multi-beam scanning, dynamic filtering, and high-resolution imaging, these X-ray solutions overcome challenges such as similar densities, blind spots, and small fragment detection. As technology advances, X-ray systems will become more accurate, faster, and efficient, enhancing both consumer protection and brand reputation. Dongguan COSO Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. provides reliable X-ray inspection systems that help manufacturers ensure product safety, maintain compliance, and protect their brand.
A: X-ray technology is used to detect glass contamination in glass containers by identifying glass fragments that appear as darker spots on X-ray images. This helps ensure product safety and quality in industries like food and pharmaceuticals.
A: An X-ray inspection system detects glass in glass packaging by measuring density differences. The glass fragment absorbs more X-rays than the surrounding material, creating a contrast that helps identify contaminants.
A: Both the packaging and the contaminant are made of similar glass, making it challenging for X-ray systems to differentiate between them. Advanced features like multi-beam scanning and high-resolution imaging are used to overcome this challenge.
A: Dynamic filtering reduces interference from dense glass areas, allowing X-ray systems to focus on detecting smaller glass fragments and improving overall image clarity, thus enhancing detection accuracy.
A: X-ray inspection systems improve product safety by detecting harmful glass fragments, preventing recalls, and ensuring compliance with industry standards in packaging, food, and pharmaceuticals.