Key Technology from Heat and Control has released a digital sorter for pet food products to guarantee a high-quality final product. This story first appeared in the January/February 2022 print edition of Food & Drink Business.
The VERYX digital sorter for pet food products integrates with Key’s material handling systems, finds, and removes foreign material (FM) and products with defects, eliminates the chance of cross-contamination thereby protecting protect brands, and improves efficiency.
VERYX can be configured to sort a wide range of pet foods. When installed at the end of the line, it helps ensure final product quality for kibble, chews and treats including dried, dehydrated, and freeze-dried products.
When installed upstream near raw receiving, it inspects ingredients such as frozen proteins and other ingredients for wet pet foods.
By detecting the colour, size, shape and/or structural properties of every object, VERYX removes plastics, glass, paper, and other FM, as well as product defects as defined by each pet food processor.
Nothing but the best
Key marketing director Marco Azzaretti says pet owners are increasingly demanding “higher and higher” quality pet food.
“Our vibratory conveyors and mechanical grading systems have had a strong presence in this industry for a long time – almost every leading pet food brand around the world relies on our equipment, and we understand their unique needs.
“Now that these processors are seeing the value of digital sorting, we’ve leveraged our pet food application expertise to develop VERYX for these applications.
“Consumers are demanding, and VERYX can help manufacturers elevate their product quality to the level of human grade while improving the efficiency of their operation.”
Flexible integration
Key can integrate VERYX with a range of their vibratory and mechanical grading solutions for transferring, scalping, size separation, fines removal, and product distribution.
Iso-Flo, Impulse and Marathon vibratory conveyors, as well as Key’s rotary separation equipment, are all suitable for pet foods, depending on the application.
Each VERYX is tailored to each customer’s specific requirements. Utilising in-air inspection, VERYX sees all sides of the product with no blind spots. Next-generation cameras and laser scanners offer twice the resolution of previous sensor technology to find smaller FM and defects. It is also available in different widths to meet a wide range of capacity requirements.
VERYX can be equipped with Key’s proprietary Pixel Fusion technology to maximise FM and defect removal.
Pixel Fusion combines signals from multiple cameras and laser scanners at the image pixel level to identify even more clearly the most difficult-to-detect FM and defects.
Its smart alarm FMAlert enables quick corrective action if a critical quality problem occurs. FMAlert also saves a time-stamped image of every critical piece of FM detected by the sorter, allowing processors to document and pinpoint product quality events and trends.
With the Discovery software suite, the sorter collects, analyses and shares data while continuing to sort product. It can reveal patterns and trends that improve sorting and control upstream and downstream processes, allowing processors to better manage incoming raw materials and optimise processes.
VERYX removes the need for manual inspection, saves on labour costs while maximising yields and helps manufacturers achieve the next level in operational efficiency.
