A coarse-fine two-stage leak detection is carried out on sealed, filled containers loaded into container holders or “pucks”. Failure of the first, coarse leak detection stage, e.g. a pressure-course or impedance or laser-absorption based leak detection stage, causes containers to be rejected togethe
A coarse-fine two-stage leak detection is carried out on sealed, filled containers loaded into container holders or “pucks”. Failure of the first, coarse leak detection stage, e.g. a pressure-course or impedance or laser-absorption based leak detection stage, causes containers to be rejected together with their corresponding container holders. These are then separated, and the container holder is cleaned and dried before being returned to the system. Any leaking product from inside a grossly leaking container is thus retained within the container holder, thus reducing contamination of subsequent containers and their container holders, preventing such contamination from reaching the fine leak detection stage, e.g. a mass-spectrometer-based leak detection stage.
대표청구항▼
1. A method of leak testing closed, filled containers comprising: loading containers into corresponding container holders, each container holder being adapted to receive a single container;conveying, on a conveyor, the containers in the respective corresponding container holders to a first leak test
1. A method of leak testing closed, filled containers comprising: loading containers into corresponding container holders, each container holder being adapted to receive a single container;conveying, on a conveyor, the containers in the respective corresponding container holders to a first leak testing station including a first leak testing arrangement;subjecting the containers in the respective corresponding container holders to a first leak detection step, and rejecting together with their corresponding container holders containers identified as leaking based on the first leak detection step;conveying, on the conveyor, the containers not identified as leaking in the first leak detection step in the respective corresponding container holders to a second leak testing station including a second leak testing arrangement; andsubjecting the containers not identified as leaking in the first leak detection step in their container holders to a second leak detection step, wherein the container holders are configured to be removable from the conveyor by the first leak testing arrangement and the second leak testing arrangement. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: rejecting containers identified as leaking in the second leak detection step in their corresponding container holders. 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: unloading containers subjected to the second leak detection step from the container holders, and thenrejecting unloaded containers identified as leaking in the second leak detection step. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: unloading containers rejected based on the first leak detection step from their corresponding container holders, and cleaning the corresponding container holders; andcleaning the container holders rejected based on the second leak detection step. 5. The method according to the claim 4, wherein the cleaned container holders are reused. 6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising retaining within the container holders any product escaping from a container during the first leak detection step. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein: the first leak detection step is selected from a group consisting of: a pressure-course-based leak detection step, an impedance-based leak detection step and a laser-absorption-based leak detection step, andthe second leak detection step is a mass-spectrometry-based leak detection step. 8. A method of manufacturing unleaky closed containers filled with a product, the method comprising: manufacturing untested filled containers;testing the containers by the method of claim 1; andaccepting containers which have not been identified as leaking as being unleaky containers. 9. An apparatus for leak testing closed and filled containers comprising: a loading arrangement for loading containers into container holders, each container holder being adapted to contain a single container;a first leak testing station;a conveyor arrangement for inline conveying a plurality of the container holders towards, through and from the first leak testing station, the first leak testing station including a first leak testing arrangement operationally connectable to a surrounding of each of the containers;a first rejection mechanism operated based on an output of the first leak testing arrangement and arranged to reject container holders containing a container determined as leaking by the first leak testing arrangement; anda second leak testing station, wherein: the conveyor arrangement is further adapted for inline conveying non-rejected container holders towards, through and from the second leak testing station, the second leak testing station including a second leak testing arrangement operationally connectable to the surrounding of each of the containers, an output signal of the second leak testing arrangement being decisive for unleakiness of each respective container; andthe container holders are configured to be removable from the conveyor arrangement by the first leak testing arrangement and the second leak testing arrangement. 10. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a second rejection mechanism operated based on an output of the second leak testing arrangement and arranged to reject container holders containing a container determined as leaky by the second leak testing arrangement. 11. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising: a second unloading arrangement downstream of the second leak testing station for unloading the containers from the container holders, anda second rejection mechanism operated based on the output signal of the second leak testing arrangement for rejecting containers identified as leaky by the second leak testing arrangement. 12. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a first unloading arrangement for unloading containers rejected based on a first detection step from their corresponding container holders and a cleaning arrangement for cleaning the corresponding container holders. 13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein: the first unloading arrangement is further adapted for unloading containers rejected based on a second detection step from their corresponding container holders, andthe cleaning arrangement is further adapted for cleaning the corresponding container holders. 14. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the container holders each include a holding volume for retaining product that escapes from the containers. 15. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein: the first leak testing arrangement is selected from a group consisting of: a pressure-course-based leak detection arrangement, an impedance-based leak detection arrangement, and a laser-absorption based leak detection arrangement, andthe second leak testing arrangement comprises a mass-spectrometry-based leak detection arrangement.
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