Slitting & Rewinding
MORE CHEESE PLEASE
Slicing, grating, cubing, portioning and packaging millions of kilos of hard
cheese a year, Vepo Cheese recently upgraded all of its production lines with a new incline layout made up of machinery from Fortress Technology
aware of Fortress and for its Oudewater site, high performance, future proofing and an independent reject system on each line were important criteria. Approaching Dutch manufacturer Jansen Control Systems to design the compact incline inspection lines, each integrated with a vertical packaging machine, Vepo first examined the Stealth machine. But their attention was quickly diverted when Jansen’s MD Gerard Schuurman explained the increased sensitivity of the Fortress Interceptor, and the advantages for cheese applications. Gerard explained how these variations in
H
density combined with the product effect could react in different ways in the magnetic field of a traditional food metal detector. “Not addressing product effect can lead to higher product waste. Keen to introduce a more fail safe solution at their Oudewater facility, Vepo wanted a metal detection solution that could increase the inspection pace in order to keep up with their growing production demands.”
BEST SOLUTION FOR CHEESE Explaining how the Interceptor machine works, Fortress European MD Phil Brown commented: ”Inspecting wet products has for many years presented cheese makers with a number of challenges. Water like metal is conductive. And cheese is inherently
16 March 2020
aving replaced its obsolete metal detectors with a used Fortress unit three years ago, Vepo was already
a wet and conductive product that also contains mineral content like salt. Accurate detection also depends on the size, shape and orientation of metal particles.” The Interceptor overrides the propensity
of ‘wet’ product effects that can drown out the signal, in particular the signals caused by a stainless steel contaminant. Software algorithms make this possible by distinguishing between signals specific to the product and those that flag up anomalies. By singling out low-frequency signals, the Interceptor leaves the signal from stainless steel more readily identifiable in the higher-frequency range. As a result, the system can pinpoint metal fragments with dimensions half those detectable with the previous generation of equipment, with greater reliability. The result of separating these two readings is any metal signal as a result of a genuine contamination isn’t swamped by product effect.
AUTOMATION EFFICIENCY The ability to isolate rejected packs without interrupting the production flow was also important to Vepo. On previous inspection lines, Vepo didn’t have an automated reject system. If a contaminated pack was identified the belt would stop and an operative would have to intervene, remove the pack and restart the inspection process. For a busy fully automated processing and packing facility, this business interruption impacted productivity.
Technical operations manager at Vepo, Hugo van Put commented: “The automated reject system also gives us 100 per cent control over production. There’s less human involvement, therefore less risk of human error. This also lowers the risk of a metal contaminant slipping through the safety net. From an efficiency perspective, continuous production is one of the main benefits.” Jansen developed an incline conveyor that could be fully integrated with the Interceptor metal detector, vertical packing system and periphery equipment. Other features comprised an easy to clean
conveyor belt and a robust easy-to-empty bin trolley that could stand up to the weight of heavy packs dropping in. All of the inspection lines were installed within a day, ensuring minimal loss of production time.
TOTAL TRACEABILITY Another advantage of the newly fully integrated packing system is the processing transparency. Each metal detector features Contact Reporter software. Data from each packaging line is collated in a common collection system, enabling quality assurance and production leaders to monitor processing and inspection performance from a centralised location. This automated record keeper developed
by Fortress also helps the factory to keep track of and record logs for rejects, tests and process settings.
fortresstechnology.co.uk convertermag.com
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