Checking the filling level of a beer bottle

Dear friends of beer,

please pay attention:
today I want to share how to ensure that the bottle is really full.
No more trouble with low beer level in the bottle!

Task

• checking if the level is reached after filling process has been finished
• The foam must be ignored

Used sensor & fibers

• WLL180T or KTL180
• LL3-TB01 (plastic) or TW01 (stainless steel) together with TA01 tip adapter

Classical arrangement with lenses on both sides

• Empty = high signal
• Full = low signal
• foam = zero signal

trick to ignore the foam

using only one tip adapter on the sender fiber

Function principle:

• Filled bottle = cylinder lens
• Receiver must be aligned to the center of  light spot

• Empty = divergent = low signal
• Full = focused = high signal
• foam = blocking = zero signal

we double check the alignment by moving the bottle and watch the display value 

Take care of moving bottles

we must take care if the bottle is standing still during the control process or if the bottle is passing by.

• in case of standing bottle the position must keep stable, so that the optical axis keeps in center position
• for moving bottles we must build a trigger window to get a definite sensing

• green curve = filled
• pink = empty
• gray = foam

thanks to GDK for the pictures and the inspiration!