quality. This is in line with a
tradition, which has been
practised for more than
80 years.
And today more than
ever, as a number of fruit
and cereal bars are being
produced for reputable
manufacturers, in addition
to the waffle products and
foamy sugar goods produced
and sold from the own brand. In
this context, the company Beier is
consulted as a specialist, especially
in terms of products associated with
organic goods, baby quality or sustainability.
The risk of contamination
The company Beier only utilises the best
possible raw materials. But by processing natu-ral
products, there is always a risk of production
contamination by various means.
Amongst other things, Beier buys approximately
3,000 tons of fruit per year: “It is normal that
during harvest, stones, metal particles or pellets
from hunters may get into the raw material,”
according to Markus Beier. Nutshells also pose
an unavoidable risk in terms of raw materials.
The company Beier decided to explore as to
how the safety of the end consumer could be
further improved. In principle, it is possible to
apply two established processes in order to
check the respective end products, x-ray checks
and inductive metal detection.
Versatile X-ray systems
X-ray detection is an imaging process. The
radiation produced by the x-ray generator
is transformed into an image by means of the
diode array in the receiver and a processing
unit. The product to be checked blocks part
of the radiation and is therefore illustrated by
means of various shades of grey. An increase
in density, thickness and atomic mass reinforce
this effect, the image will become darker and
darker.
The respective contaminations, such as most
metals, glass, high-density plastic or stones
have a high density and atomic mass. There-fore,
they can be clearly distinguished from the
surrounding product, even in case of a relatively
low level of thickness, and may therefore be
identified. However, very thin metallic contami-nations,
such as fine shearing or metallised foil
may be problematic. If not enough radiation
For these products, x-ray scanners are almost
always superior in regard to metals.
Risk evaluation
Due to the various unavoidable risks
concerning raw materials, and
following a HACCP-compliant
risk evaluation, the only suitable
tool for contaminant checking
appeared to be x-ray technology.
This technology identifies the
broadest range of contaminants
within the finished products.
Furthermore, the technology
offers additional quality assurance
tools, such as counting options or
checks for breakage. Following the
finding, a suitable partner was to be
identified. “We decided to go with
the easyScope x-ray inspection systems
provided by Mesutronic Gerätebau
GmbH. They were able to offer an optimum
compromise in regard to user friendliness and
detection accuracy, the implementation project
and respective start-up were carried out with-out
any problems,” says Alexander Beier (45),
Technical Managing Director of Beier.
The silver bullet
In order to protect consumers as best as
possible, the company Beier not only decided
to invest in modern x-ray systems, but also
to combine both processes. All lines were
furthermore equipped with Metron 07 CI tunnel
metal detectors.
The metal detection systems specialise in
all types of metallic contaminations.
Firstly, and as far as possible, they remove
all bars, which are contaminated with pellets,
shearing as well as pieces of wire or similar
items.
The x-ray systems, in turn, specialise in
non-metallic contaminations, such as stones,
shells or glass. They also improve the detection
performance in terms of products with metal-lised
packaging. Per line, up to 600 bars per
minute are forwarded to secondary packaging
as well as delivered to shops and, finally, end
consumers.
www.beier-waffeln.de, www.mesutronic.de
Georg Hübner (35) has been
working for Mesutronic for
more than 13 years in various
departments. As a certified
Marketing Manager, he is also
responsible for technical documen-tation
and product management, in
addition to market communication.
Georg Hübner (35),
Fachbereichsleiter Marketing
Mesutronic Gerätebau GmbH,
ist seit über 13 Jahren in unter-schiedlichen
Aufgabengebieten
für Mesutronic tätig. Als geprüfter
Marketingleiter betreut er neben den
Bereichen Marktkommunikation auch
die technische Dokumentation
sowie das Produktmanagement.
Der easyScope-
Fremdkörperdetektor
im Einsatz. /
The easyScope
contaminant
detector in
action.
is absorbed, the contamination cannot be
recognised by the scanner’s image-processing
algorithms.
Tested metal detectors
Metal detectors, which work in line with the
so-called “balanced coil” principle, are able
to check products by means of an alternately
poled magnetic field, which induces electric
tension in the receiving coils. You will be able to
identify metallic contaminations on the basis of
electric conductibility and magnetic permeabil-ity.
It is even possible to identify contaminants
with a low density or thickness. However, thin
metallised packaging components may, in turn,
lead to a reduction in the general level
of detection.
Especially in terms of the products of the Firma
Beier, which are to be well checked, the level
of detection achieved by the metal detector in
regard to iron and aluminium particles is gener-ally
better than the results achieved by the x-ray
scanner. Regarding the utilisation of metallised
packaging components, this is more difficult.
28 2 / 2017 PRODUCT SAFETY
PRODUKTSICHERHEIT
Foros: Mesutronic Gerätebau