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Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava 
Year IX, No. 4 - 2010 

 
 

 31 

 
COMPUTERIZED SYSTEM FOR CLOSURE CONTROL  

OF PACKAGES IN FOOD INDUSTRY 
 
 

Cristian LOGOFATU1, Daniela CIOBOATA1, Mariana IONESCU2,  
Gabriel MUSTATEA2, Amelia BUCULEI3 

 

 
1INCDMTM, 6-8 Pantelimon Road, Bucharest, cristilogofatu@yahoo.com 

2 Institute of Food Bioresources - Bucharest 
3 Stefan cel Mare University- Suceava 

 
 
Abstract:  Canned food and beverages, currently, comprise a total area of approx. 59 billion cans per 
year, of which 23 billion cans for food. They represent 18% of total global annual 321 billion cans. In 
North America, annually, over 32 billion steel cans are produced and sent to the use of packaging [1].  
The quality of a food container is determined by its ability to protect the product it contains from 
chemical deterioration or microbiological spoilage [2]. 
In the area of industrial applications the problem of closure control for packages used in the food 
industry is very important as canned products should resist long time (2-3 years), and the 
consequences of a package defect (content alteration) are not immediately detectable; occurring after 
a long time and may become extremely dangerous for consumer’s health. 
One of the can integrity and leakage detection investigation methods is the seam projector measuring 
system. 
The computerized system presented was designed for closure control of packages used in the food 
industry. It contains an integrated system of computing and control which shall be used for a total 
control of the encasing of the canned product. Thus, there shall be measured the encasing parameters 
and the dimensional and shape parameters of the packages subject to the sterilization process to find 
out the defects that may lead in time to the alteration of the content. 
 
Keywords:  package encasing,  sterilization, canned food  
 
 
 
 
Introduction 
The increase in the national economy 
competitiveness in producing high quality 
products in compliance with the 
international standards and especially, the 
alignment of quality at technical 
performances thereof to the requirements 
imposed by the European Union is one of 
the main targets. 
According to the data furnished by the 
Sanitary Veterinary National Authority for 
Food Safety (ANSVSA), more than 500 
units of the food industry could be closed, 
unless they are modernized and 
restructured, so that to comply with the 

European regulations. The late data of 
ANSVSA reveals that only 20% are  
 
according to the EU regulations, while 
37%, although not complying with the 
conditions of the European Community 
could carry on their activities by 
investments.[1] 
The immediate consequences of such 
situation could be summarized as follows: 
•  a serious risk people’s food safety; 
• weak presence of the Romanian canned 
products on the European market though 
Romania has a high agricultural potential 
(vegetables, fruits), and the Danube Delta 
represents a huge piscicultural capacity 
(canned fish);   



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava 
Year IX, No. 4 - 2010 

 
 

 32 

• immediate shut-off of all trade agents 
not complying with the quality regulations 
of the European Union;  
• cost price increase of the products, if, 
due to market requisites, control 
equipment for the food industry packages 
are to be imported; 
• neglecting the scientific capacity of the 
Romanian researchers and specialists.  
 The computerized system for controlling 
package   encasing in the food industry, 
dimensionally verify the packages, 
according to the European Union 
regulations, furnishing information on 
certain parameters that may influence the 
quality of the canned product and decides 
if it has any potential risk for consumer’s 
food safety. The geometrical parameters 
of the package are extremely important, as 
the quality of the encasing of such food 
stuff depends on them. The encasing is 
one of the most important stages in the 
technology for canned product 
manufacturing, being decisive for the 
conservations interval, and implicitly food 
safety of such product.  

Considering the long life canned products 
should have (2-3 years) and the fact that 
the defects (content alteration)are not 
immediately detectable, as they appear 
after a long time and being extremely 
dangerous for consumer’s health, a special 
attention should be granted the control of 
canned stuff packages. [2] 
 
Scientific and technical description  

From the point of view of the technical and 
constructive complexity, at the end of the 
project an integrated system of computing 
and control shall be realized which shall be 
used for a total control of the encasing of 
the canned product. Thus, there shall be 
measured the encasing parameters and the 
dimensional and shape parameters of the 
packages subject to the sterilization 
process to find out defects that may lead in 
time to the alteration of the content.  

From a constructive point of view, the 
Computerized system for the control of 
package encasing in the food industry is 
designed modular and has the following 
functional structure, schematically 
represented in the following image: 
 

 
 

Figure 1: Computerized system for the control 
of package encasing in the food industry 

 
● The equipment for the checking of 
packages is made of a set of devices 
provided with flexible basing systems 
(pos.6), adjustable to various types of 
packages (3), with measuring systems 
provided with inductive transducers (2), 
(4) highly viable and high-precision 
systems for the displacement and 
positioning (1). The equipment is provided 
with an electronic block (5) for data 
acquisition, control and monitoring 
provided with dedicated measuring 
software, making possible a complex 
analysis of the parameters that may 
influence upon food preservation safety, 
accurately indicating the occurrence of the 
defect and preventing its perpetuation. 
There may be measured, stored, processed 
and recorded information related to the 
geometrical dimensions of the packages 
that may influence the encasing, such as: at 
deviation from the nominal quotas of the 
height and diameter, deviations from 
smoothness and ovality of the encasing 
hole, geometry of the higher part of the 
package, etc. All these data are sent to the 
central computer unit (11), where they are 



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava 
Year IX, No. 4 - 2010 

 
 

 33 

stored and may be edited in complete 
measurements bulletins. 
● The equipment for checking package 
encasing is an integrated system of optical-
electronic control, containing a high 
resolution video camera (7) and a 
telecentric lighting system (9). The camera 
takes over the real image of the encasing 
(welt) of the controlled package (8) and 
sends it to the electronic block (13).This 
block display the image on a LCD screen 
(12), measures the encasing parameters 
and calculates the real union. The real 
union represents the synthesis of all 
composing elements of the encasing, is 
expressed in percentages of total union and 
consists in the welt portion where sealing 
effectively takes place, by gripping the 
rubber seal between the hook of the body 
and that of the tap. A welt is correctly 
formed when the real union has a value 
above 50%. Below the mentioned value, 
the welt may be suspected of leakage. The 
results of the measurements are displayed 
on the electronic block and are sent to the 
main computer. 
● The main computer (11) correlated the 
measurements directly on the package, to 
those obtained after encasing and identifies 
the elements that could cause a defect. The 
measurements bulletin is typed by the 
editing system of the computer (10) to the 
complete data of the measurements, 
including the lot, change, date and time. 
All these operations are made 
automatically, with no intervention of the 
human factor (operator). There is a 
possibility of printing the real image of the 
welt for a complex analysis of the material 
and sealing after the encasing process.  All 
measured date shall be stored for 
monitoring the entire process in time. 
Thus, there shall be statistically monitored 
the evolution of such elements in time and 
the appropriate measures can be taken as 
soon as there may be found out deviations 
from the interval considered normal. The 
values thus obtained may furnish accurate 

indices as to the causes having generated 
an inappropriate encasing.  The main 
computer may be connected (if the 
production line allows it) directly to the 
control system of the encasing line (see 
fig.), with the possibility of identifying any 
problems that may occur at encasing, out 
of which we specify: the inadequate 
functioning of the encasing devices 
(decentration of the head and of the 
encasing pan, non-parallelism of the 
surfaces, mismatch of the compression 
resort pressure, position of the encasing 
rolls in relation to the head of the device), 
incorrect adjustment, wear or mismatch o 
the device rolls, etc.   
 
Performance and quality parameters 
The level of performance and quality 
parameters of the suggested solution can 
be found in the technical characteristics 
aimed at by the new product: 
- the resolution of the measuring system 
for the linear quotas: 0,005mm;  
- resolution of the system for the 
measuring of shape and surface deviations: 
0,01mm;  
- accuracy of measurement: ± 0,01mm; 
- optical enlargement on the LCD screen: 
30X; 
- parameters measured at encasing: welt 
thickness and height, tap depth, body hook, 
tap hook, outer reinforcement and inner 
indentation (in line with the body union), 
as well as encasing percentage; 
- parameters measured for packages: 
diameter and height on the encasing 
quota, deviation from surface smoothness 
of the surface on which encasing is made, 
circularity (ovality) deviation of the 
surface on which encasing takes place; 

- encasing parameters of the taps: outer 
diameter, tap height, edge height, area 
„elongated metal”; 
- working field: this equipment may 
control: 



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava 
Year IX, No. 4 - 2010 

 
 

 34 

- metallic canned products (STAS 1687/81, 
SR ISO 3004/92, SR ISO 10653/96):  
ø73mm and ø99mm; 
- taps for metallic tins with dimensions: 
ø73mm and ø99mm. 
- metallic taps for steel (Twist-Off, PT, 
etc.) and aluminum (Omnia, Keller, etc.) 
recipients. The most used of them are 
Omnia with the following variants 
P(pasteurization) and S(sterilization) with 
the dimensions: ø56mm, ø68mm and 
ø83mm. 
Due to the high flexibility provided by the 
equipment, it may be used for checking an 
important sort of packages for the food 
industry. There should be underlined the 
fact that when designing the equipment, 
there shall be considered the possibility of 
permanently adjusting the measuring 
accuracy and field to the demands of the 
future beneficiaries. There shall also be 
considered the future evolution of the field, 
by the occurrence of new typo-dimensions 
of packages. 
 

DEGREE OF NOVELTY AND 
COMPLEXITY  
The idea of this project proposal occurred 
because of the many requests which were 
received from certain trade agents of the 
food industry. They are interested in 
acquiring some systems measuring the 
encasing, but also the dimensional and 
shape deviations of the packages that may 
influence on their encasing. Accurate 
control systems were requested where the 
operator’s influence be manifest as little as 
possible to avoid any possibility of 
occurring objective or subjective errors. 
For this reason, this project proposes the 
creation of a computer-assisted system, to 
carry out the control and monitoring of the 
technological process for the encasing of 
packages and to automatically issue the 
measurement bulletin with all the 
identification data on it, with no 
intervention of the operator.    

Project contribution to the settlement of 
certain high complexity problems, in the 
area of industrial applications, is that it 
settles the problem of closure control for 
packages used in the food industry. This 
issue is very important as canned products 
should resist long time (2-3 years), and the 
consequences of a package defect (content 
alteration) are not immediately detectable; 
occurring after a long time and may 
become extremely dangerous for 
consumer’s health.  
By mathematical models and dedicated 
measuring software to be worked out, the 
project directly contributes to the 
development of new S/T field, determining 
its research character at the border of 
scientific and technical border. From this 
point of view, we should mention: the use 
of dimensional measurements, and 
computer-assisted deviations in industrial 
applications and transfer of the decisional 
factor of the control operation, from man 
to computer. 
The degree of novelty and originality of 
this project is represented by the creation 
for the first time of a computerized system 
for the control of package encasing to be 
integrated in the manufacturing technology 
of trade agents producing packages for the 
food industry and meat, fish, vegetable and 
fruit canned products, in order to comply 
with the quality demands set by the 
European Union.  
On international level, there have been 
produced devices checking both packages, 
and their encasing, but no informational 
system has been produced so far directly 
correlating the two operations which are 
essential for the canned product safety. 
Another objective sustaining the high 
degree of novelty and originality on 
international level of the project is 
represented by the working out of 
dedicated, flexible software, so that the 
measuring diagram may contain as many 
data as required by the user of the 
equipment. This original software shall be 



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava 
Year IX, No. 4 - 2010 

 
 

 35 

designed in a modular (reconfigurable) 
way as reusable elements. The hardware 
and software components shall be the basis 
for the subsequent development, in order to 
refit the systems and to adjust them to the 
new types of packages to appear in the 
future. For this reason, we may say that the 
project has a high degree of novelty and 
originality, falling within the major 
tendencies manifested on international 
level.   
 
Conclusions 
 
The implementation of the project shall 
have a significant technical, economic, 
scientific, and social impact.  
The technical-economic impact consists in: 
 - the creation of a new, sealable product 
demanded by the market; 
 - the creation of a new product and the 
implementation of modern technologies for 
control in the production processes; 
 -  increase of consumer’s food safety; 
 -  economic growth in regional plan, 
including in the developed areas, but with 
a significant potential for the food 
industry; 
 - increase of the turnover and profit by the 
significant increase of the productivity, 
quality and viability; 
 - increase of economic competitiveness by 
economic relaunching of the field-related 
trade agents; 
The scientific impact shall be emphasized 
by: 
 - increase of the personal capacity of 
research - development; 
 - training young researchers with 
experience in complex research-
development projects; 

 - scientific knowledge obtainable after the 
completion of the project tat shall be easily 
usable in other projects; 
 - developing a system of acquisitions and 
data processing of high velocity; 
 - use of highly accurate mechanical 
elements; 
 - development of algorithms for the 
control of products and processes in the 
food industry. 
The social impact of implementing the 
project in the mechanical processing fields 
shall be significant as well: 
- boosting the regional economic growth 
by providing trade units with modern 
equipment; 
- increase of the canned stuff production 
with a positive impact on the raw material 
producers; 
  - providing an important data basis for the 
Romanian technical education; 
  - establishing better labour and life 
conditions by reducing the risk of 
occurrence of accidents at the working 
place;  
  - reducing the level of noise in the canned 
stuff production units. 
 
Acknowledgements 
 
The financial support of "Parteneriate" 
Program of National Management Program 
Centre, by means of project no. 51-
052/2007 for achieving this contribution is 
gratefully acknowledged 
 
References 
 
1. The Canmaker Online, 2006 
2. U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Center for 
Food Safety & Applied Nutrition,  Bacteriological 
Analytical Manual Online, 2001