Mettler-Toledo Safeline Limited, a provider of metal detection systems for vertical packing applications, has launched a series of enhanced features for Profile Throat metal detectors and Gravity Fall systems.
The enhancements are aimed at making metal detection a smoother, safer, less disruptive process that adds profitability, according to the company.
Reduced Test (RT) Mode is the first area of improvement, enabling a significant reduction in the frequency of metal detector testing. For example, a customer who was testing metal detector function every two hours can extend this to every 12 hours with RT, providing the extended test period is still within the customer's quarantine period for the product concerned. Overall time savings will be substantial.
In order to reduce that five minute testing window, the Automatic Test System (ATS) was developed to keep downtime to minimum.
ATS automatically introduces three test pieces into the metal detector's aperture in a controlled manner via a pneumatic system – one ferrous, one non-ferrous, and one stainless steel - at the touch of a button.
A four-test sample option is also available, to facilitate testing for aluminium. ATS improves the efficiency and repeatability of performance testing to enhance quality processes.
It only takes one person to run the test, whereas in many existing situations it takes two people. Food manufacturers who install Safeline's latest metal detectors for vertical packing applications will experience a lower total cost of ownership, and benefit from improved Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), according to head of sales Mike Bradley.
In terms of performance, new eDrive technology drives greater power to the transmit coil of the metal detector, enabling it to detect significantly smaller real life metal contaminants. Fitted with eDrive, Mettler-Toledo’s throat metal detectors and gravity fall systems deliver up to 20 per cent increased spherical sensitivity, according to Bradley.
The fourth element is called Emulation, which allows operators to mirror the Human Machine Interface (HMI) of one or multiple Profile metal detectors onto remote networked devices using VNC technology.
The customer downloads a free-of-charge application from the app store and links it directly to the metal detector, and quality personnel can log in from an office, for example, and remotely monitor the current status of the detector, view any setting changes that have been made, and review access log statistics without having to be directly in front of the metal detector.
