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Vishnu Sunil
Time and again, impurities make their way into production processes. Detectable parts use special materials that can be reliably detected with the naked eye, via image processing or with a metal detector, to identify fragments of handles, knobs or levers.
Foreign matter has no place in food – and yet undesired contamination still makes its way into production processes and we need to be vigilant to prevent this. Failing to detect them in good time runs the risk of product recalls, causing unquantifiable damage to a company’s reputation.
Surprisingly. contamination often comes from fragments of machine parts, such as handling elements, tools or containers. If these parts are very small, they often go unnoticed – at least by conventional means.
With this in mind, our partner Otto Ganter GmbH & Co. KG has established a new line of standard parts made of plastic that are easy to detect – even in cloudy and opaque media. This is where reliance falls on visual and metallic detectability. With the appropriate sensors, both options can be used automatically, thus significantly increasing product safety.
VD (visually detectable) standard parts are made of solid-coloured blue plastic. Blue because it is a colour that does not appear in food, making it very easy to recognise, both to the human eye and for camera-based monitoring systems. The colour blue also makes it easier to detect food (or other product) residue in places where it shouldn’t be.
MD (metal detectable) standard parts are also made of blue plastic but contain additional additives with iron oxide. These, in turn, can be reliably detected with metal sensors at a particle volume of 0.125 cm3 and up if visual detectability is not enough.
Incidentally, metal detectability has long been used in a completely different context with great success. For instance, this feature is used in the feeding of sprue grinders in the injection moulding process to prevent unwanted metal parts such as injection bushings from entering.
Our range of detectable standard parts includes knobs, cabinet U-handles, hinges, hand levers and three-lobe knobs. What they all have in common is not only their blue colour but also that they are made of FDA-compliant plastic granulates (FDA CFR.21 and EU 10/2011). This means they can be used in both the food and pharmaceutical industries without causing any issues.
More information on detectable standard parts can be found here
Aerospace Systems Food & Beverage Industrial Machinery Pharmaceutical
