Gases company BOC has launched new leak detector for modified atmosphere production lines that offers non-destructive in-line leak detection of all product at high speeds.
Its Mapax LD uses hydrogen as the detection gas and is based on globally patented technology that tests 100 per cent of packages in a non-destructive manner.
The technology enables all products to be tested and individual defective items to be removed to reduce spoilage and reduce environmental impact, because only the leaking packs need to be destroyed instead of the entire batch.
“This is particularly important in the food industry,” Jon Hawton, BOCs market manager, Food & Beverage Bulk Gases. “Previously production pauses and visual or water testing could only test the integrity of random samples of packages,” he says.
Leakage and failure often occurs when food packages are not all fully hermitically sealed. According to BOC, this can be due to poor sealing or physical damage such as pinholes, or when product gets caught in the seal.
“If only random checks are applied, this means that when a leak is found, the whole batch produced since the last check either has to be repackaged, disposed of or even recalled,” says. Hawton.
The Mapax LD is being demonstrated at BOC’s stand [548] at AUSPACK, and it is now available in Australia and New Zealand.
