Algorithms for the Detection of Blob Defects in High Speed Glass Tube Production Lines

The glass tube production requires high-quality checks that may be performed via inspection systems based on image processing. Such processing must be fast enough to guarantee real-time inspection and to meet the increasing production speed and quality required by the market. Among the various classes of defects, blobs, that appear on the tube surface as circular lenses, are critical as they are hard to be detected and can induce in consumers the idea of low quality of the product contained. In this paper, we present a system based on an algorithm for defect detection that outperforms, in terms of processing time, state of the art solutions without increasing the number of defective tubes not detected. The algorithm exploits defects features and the proprieties of tubes image that are relevant in the production process.