Guide to Packaging Quality Control: 3 Things to Consider

Packaging quality control is the name given to all the activities carried out at production and manufacturing facilities to ensure the safety, quality, and consumer satisfaction of goods. These include but can extend beyond measurements, weight and fill level examinations, inspections, and material quality checks.

Checking for proper fill level and weight is one of the key processes in the packaging quality control process. For example, it requires checking that finished goods going into packaging cartons or boxes are filled to the optimal level. In terms of size measurement, manufacturing facilities must ensure, for instance, that packaged cheese products are of precise cut and weight. Inspection, perhaps the biggest packaging quality control effort, checks for damage, foreign objects, defects, and irregularities before, during, and after production.

In a production site producing a few hundred items per day, manual inspection via human inspectors and measurement with conventional measuring instruments may suffice. In fast-moving production lines, however, modern measurement and inspection systems must be utilized for efficiency and proper quality control.

This is where measurement sensor devices and laser profilers come into the picture. Laser profilers, for example, can measure such parameters as size, shape, and dimension of packaging components and the packaging itself. These sensors also double as inspection solutions as they can inspect finished goods and packages for defects and irregularities in real-time.

Large production and manufacturing lines pushing thousands or millions of product units out to the market every day would have to look into packaging measurement and inspection solutions. They can incorporate these packaging quality control systems into their production efforts. Before doing so, below are three key considerations.

While the packaging inspection process for every industry and manufacturing site will not be the same, the process generally involves multiple checks, as listed below.
Note: These are not in any order, as inspections can be done at any production stage.

• Visual inspection for defects, damage, and/or irregularities
• Weighing packages to ensure they meet specified weight or fill level
• Verification of labels and codes for accuracy
• Checking for leaks
• Regulatory compliance checks
• Carrying out sensor-based inspections

There are many quality control systems that manufacturing and production lines can use to boost productivity and increase efficiency. These options include (but aren't limited to) 3D scanning technology, laser displacement solutions, and different types of measurement sensors.

In addition to the three key factors discussed earlier, employees must be focused on the quality criteria for every production process. This is especially important because human input is still required to operate these systems and to provide overall packaging inspection. Establishing a clear quality standard with team members and inspectors will help create a synergy between the human and machine parts of the quality control system.