Industrial Machinery News

Archive for the ‘Material Handling’ Category

Candy manufacturing requires a number of processes where ingredients are mixed, cooked and formed.  Inherently these processes introduce tramp metal (metal fragments) in to the candy.  Many candy manufacturers struggle with where to place the metal detector for optimum performance and protection for the consumer.

Food safety is an integral part of many food manufacturers’ quality programs.  Often these programs although desirable fail to both protect the consumer and maintain low levels of rejected product.  Metal detection systems are seen as a ‘non value added’ machine within the system of candy manufacturing.  I take a different view of this.  Contaminate detection is a high value added part of any process.

How can metal detection increase your bottom line?

Simply, reduce waste, protect your brand and lead the industry for safe product production.  Imagine what would happen if your product made it to market and caused a serious injury or worse death of a consumer.  How would you recover from this?  What would be the cost both immediate and long term?  The cost to recover from such a disaster would be in magnitude to the cost of implementing an effective contaminate detection program.

So what’s the right way to detect metal in a candy company?

Start first at the back door.  Here is were you have greater control of contaminates being introduced in to your process.  Place a metal detection system at each entry point such as rail car loading etc.  Using a gravity feed metal detection system (such as the Goring Kerr model 401) to detect metal with in the raw ingredients will help you take control of what your suppliers are selling you as well increase your ability to detect small pieces.  After this point look for areas where ingredients are mixed together and have a high potential for introduction of metal fragments (tramp metal).  Again this point is a low cost to the end product costs.  Finally have a metal detector after the product is packaged or just before.  This last resort will help to detect larger pieces of metal within the product.

Having several metal detection systems within your process may seem to add unnecessary costs but in fact help to reduce operation costs and increase product/brand equity.

 Belt conveyor systems are used through all modern manufacturing processes.  Belting materials range from thin single or double layer flat belts, urethane rope belting, band belting to plastic chain belting.  Each belt type provides specific advantages for many applications.

Plastic chain belting allows for quick and easy repair or replacement and simpler system design.  Typically you do not need to track plastic chain belting.  The belt locks in to geared drive on the conveyor belt roller at both the tail and head pulley that align the belt automatically.  This design inherently removes complex belt tracking systems.  The disadvantage to plastic chain belting is smooth transfer; all sections are square and ‘bump’ as he round the pulleys and belt clogging or buildup of material.

Flat belting is used in many applications fro the snack food industry, packaging machinery, paper manufacturing and electronics.  The range is seemingly endless and option as far as you can see.  Flat belts come in layers and are built up to improve strength and wear characteristics.  The top surface can be made to grip or grab (rubber belt) materials and move them easily up hill.  The downside is that replacing a conveyor belt you typically need an exact replacement, or a belting repair kit to splice a new section in.  Some belting and applications allow for using a zipper for quicker repairs.

When choosing a conveyor design look carefully at how the belting system works and ask yourself - What will I do when the belt fails?

Now this is a loaded question. Most industrial metal detection companies cringe when they are asked about performance. Why is this? Simply metal detector performance is based on many variables which change over time, some frequently others over long periods, and often can not accurately be duplicated in laboratory testing. 

Do you need to replace or repair a conveyor belt on a metal detection system? When replacing a belt on conveyor systems you should pay attention to several key areas. The most important things to consider are the belt material and the belt splice. Metal detectors such as the Goring Kerr (Thermo), Safeline, Loma or Fortress Technology metal detectors are all impacted by these installation issues. Obviously you cannot use a metal zipper to connect the ends of the belt when used on a metal detection system. Equally important is the makeup of the belt. Many ‘colored’ belts contain pigments that interfere with most metal detectors. 

 Here are some simple steps to align or track your fabric conveyor belt.

1. Confirm which direction the belt is travelling.  If it is tracking to the left you will want it to track slightly to the right until the belt is centered.
2. On all belt systems there is a tracking roller.  Sometimes this roll is the tail roller or it is near the middle of the conveying system. There may be another roller that looks like a tracking roller but this is usually the tensioning roller.  If there are 2 tracking rollers use the one farthest from the drive roller.  Loosen any locking nuts and adjust the roller slight to the left or right. 
3. If your belt is moving to the left as you look down the belt you will want to adjust the adjustment roller tighter on the left.  This will cause the belt to track right.  Make small adjustments when doing this and allow the belt to run for awhile before making more adjustments.  Faster moving belts will allow you to see the effect sooner then slower moving belts.
4. With the conveyor belt moving carefully push the belt in the direction you want it to track to.  It’s best to use the heel of your palm to do this and push in a diagonal direction in the line of travel up and toward the corner you want the belt to move to.  Once you have the belt tracking correctly tighten any bolts on the tracking roller.  Watch the belt for a period of time and return periodically to make sure the tracking is correct.  A miss guided belt can cause significant damage to any equipment mounted on the conveyor system.

NOTE:ALWAYS REMOVE WATCHES,RINGS,BRACLETS,LOOSE CLOTHING ,ANYTHING THAT MIGHT CATCH ON THE BELT SEAM!!!
 

By Frank Vanella

By Rama Krishna

By Jane Byrne , 25-Nov-2008

A new metal detector targeted at the food processing sector offers minimal loss of good material due to a fast reacting, powerful pneumatic drive for the reject gate, says the manufacturer.

By Lindsey Partos, 18-Feb-2009

German firm Wiese Förderelemente has rolled out a magnetically detectable polypropylene pendulum bucket for quick detection of unwanted plastics, in response to growing demand for detectable plastic materials in conveyor buckets.