Current prior art is, for example, that lead-out and/or distribution systems are in a bottling plant in the food industry arranged downstream of inspection units and/or machines, and lead inspected containers onto corresponding tracks depending on the respective inspection result. For example, underfilled containers can downstream of a filling machine be led to a lead-out belt. It is also possible, however, that several different inspection results are led out to a common belt, such as underfilled and/or incorrectly closed containers. Containers having two different types of faults and also faulty rejections are therefore then found in a separation station. In extreme cases, it can happen that it is not apparent which type of fault is given, or whether a malfunction or contamination of the inspection device resulted in the lead-out of the container when the container actually has no fault.
The published patent application DE 26 53 000 discloses a device for marking selected objects in a block of objects moving in rows along a conveyor belt and being disposed transversely to the conveyor belt in batches. A plurality of marking units is arranged transversely above the conveyor belt, and each of them is mounted vertically above one of these rows of objects. The marking unit can receive signals to mark one of the selected objects appearing below the marking unit. The marking medium is preferably paint that is non-toxic and preferably reflective.
GB 1 402 857 discloses a marking system for marking defective items, so that they can be easily distinguished from similar items that are not defective. A marking can be applied onto a container using a marking unit, for which purpose, for example, ink or other marking fluid is used. Marked defective containers can be detected either by an automatic inspection device or by manual inspection.
WO 2011/030 042 A1 discloses a method in which objects matching a criterion are assigned an identifier “1”, and objects not matching the criterion are assigned an identifier “0”. The identifier is to assist in manually sorting out the identified objects not matching the criterion. In this, placement of the visual identifier does not occur physically on the object because a physical mark could, for example, damage the object or adhere poorly to the object. For example, a visual identifier can be such that a light beam is projected onto the identified objects not matching the criterion.
DE 198 34 185 A1 discloses a method for inspecting container closures, where when applying the closures an internal pressure characteristic is measured and/or parameters of the closures or the containers are detected, the knowledge of which is necessary for determining the internal pressure from the measurement of the internal pressure characteristic. Allocation of the values measured or detected when mounting the closures to the respective container is possible by marking. For example, the measured values of the characteristic and the parameters can with the marking be directly applied to the container.
The disclosure is therefore based on the objective to provide a marking device which allows creating markings and applying them to/onto a container, so that also non-evident faults on or at the containers or faults associated with a container can be allocated. It is a further objective of the disclosure to provide a container handling device with the marking device and an improved method for marking containers using the marking device.