The system alerts Manner employees to a dented or otherwise unacceptable package. Employees react quickly, because if a package is dented it may become jammed further down the production line, resulting in additional and unnecessary product rejects, Gassner says.

Since implementing the vision system, productivity on the Manner line has increased by 5 percent because interruptions in product flow — to manually check for crushed packages — is kept to a minimum, he adds.

While Decision Technology hasn't seen many orders for vision systems from the baking industry, Rongo has seen growing interest and several inquiries from wholesale bakers. He also has sold vision systems to companies that provide packaging and material handling products to the baking industry.

Decision Technology is a systems integrator. To create a customized vision system, the company purchases cameras, software and other devices, depending on client needs. It then integrates the devices to best carry out the task at hand.

One wholesale baker recently inquired about a high-speed pie-slicing application. At this bakery, pies are automatically sliced, and each slice is then packaged in a plastic container. The vision system for this application would have validated that the package labeling was placed correctly on the container.

In general, many of the ways machine vision is used across industries can be translated to baking applications, Rongo says. In the case of folding machines used to cut large pieces of metal to size, vision systems often monitor the width of the cut. If the width isn't correct, blades automatically adjust for the correct cut.

“In this instance, the cutter is cutting aluminum, but something like that could be used in baking as well,” Rongo says.

Like others in the know, he expects the baking industry will be seeing and hearing more about vision systems and more fruitfully reaping their rewards in the near future.