CUSTOMER:	Alcon Laboratories, Inc. www.alconlabs.com
TITLE:	In-Line Vacuum Detection System
FUNDING:	$27,000
GOAL:	To perform 100% continuous inspection for the integrity of the vacuum sealed of bottled saline solution used in eye surgery.  Pneumatic controlled hammers were designed to impact the bottles moving at 60 per minute on Alcon's production line.  Acoustic analysis of a recording microphone enabled the establishment of a pass/fail criteria for the bottles based on their acoustic power response to the impacts.  Sensor-based computer control logic removed rejected faulty sealed bottles from the line.