Foreign Body Detectors

The protection of production facilities, on the other hand, is a typical concern of the chemical industry, Plastics, rubber, recycling and wood industry. In the chemical industry for example, metal detectors are used for the inspection of reprocessed plastics to avoid damage to cost-intensive moulds.

All products contaminated with foreign bodies are reliably discharged from the production or packaging line by our inspection products. This ensures that the final product is not contaminated and minimizes the risk of product recalls. But It is not only consumer protection that plays an important role: production equipment can also be damaged by foreign bodies in the product during further processing. Metal detectors therefore play a doubly important role in production.

The use of X-ray inspection systems in the food industry has increased considerably in recent years. The systems have proven to be a good investment in product safety, integrity and quality. Their ability to detect foreign bodies in products and reliably reject them from the production or packaging line promotes compliance with industry standards such as HACCP, IFS and BRC, protects brand image and helps avoid costly product recalls.

In addition to consumer protection, foreign body detectors are also used to ensure product quality and integrity. Minebea Intec solutions ensure both consumer and machine protection through maximum detection performance. The products can be found at various points in a production chain and form the critical control points: The devices can be used to inspect loose materials and goods in the incoming goods area in order to eliminate contaminated raw material.

Another important instance is the check of packaged goods before the goods reach despatch. Metal detectors and X-ray inspection equipment ensure product quality here. But X-ray systems such as the Dymond series are not only used for foreign body detection. Standard tasks, which are traditionally attributed to checkweighers, are also performed by modern systems. These include completeness checks, fill level checks, the geometric detection of, for example, cavities or cracks in the product and even the approximate calculation of the product weight.

The selection of the right foreign body detector depends primarily on the product to be inspected. The following applies to X-ray equipment: the thicker and denser the product, the more X-ray energy is required. The contrast and ultimately the sensitivity of the system must be kept in mind according to the customer's requirements. Flexibility results from different detector resolutions: This influences the minimum foreign body size that can be detected by the system.

The sensitivity of a metal detection coil, on the other hand, depends essentially on its operating frequency and the conductivity of the product (product effect). For production lines with different products and product effects, the use of devices with multi-frequency technology such as the Vistus series is recommended. For many customers, the dimensions of the search coil are also important: in many production plants, for example, there is limited space; here, compact devices such as the Vistus fit the bill with it‘s compact dimensions and consistently good detection results. If you need more information about metal detection and X-ray inspection systems, we recommend our whitepapers.