For increased confidence and certainty – X-ray inspection in the food industry
Looking for an X-ray inspection food solution that combines excellent detection properties with reasonable costs? Then X-ray inspection food technologies are a sound choice: X-rays can penetrate materials that do not allow any visible light to pass through. This means greater safety and quality for your production as X-ray inspection systems enable you to track down hidden contaminants such as glass, bones, stones or metal quickly and easily. As foreign bodies absorb more X-rays than the food surrounding them, they are easy to find and eject.
Bear in mind that an X-ray inspection system is the best protection when it comes to reliably preventing unforeseen risks due to contamination of your products and for ensuring quality. Not only does it assure you of a first-class reputation, it also strengthens customer confidence in your products.
On this page you can learn about our X-ray inspection systems and their use in the food industry:
Perfect detection and highest hygiene standards – a must worldwide
If you not only need an X-ray inspection food solution that can be fully integrated into your line but also attach importance to the fact that it can be extended, e.g. by quantity or completeness checks, our X-ray inspection systems will go the extra mile for you.
Major plus: the X-ray inspection systems are very easy to integrate due to the slim designs, high modularity in respect of their core components, different equipment versions and inbound-outbound components.
And what’s more, the balcony architecture combined with the C-shaped product space and chamfered surfaces enable quick, easy and thorough cleaning for the highest hygiene requirements.
We make our contribution with our state-of-the-art technologies, so that you can fully shoulder your huge responsibility as a food producer.
As experts, we know that your processing speeds are increasing and your tasks are becoming more complex. We continually meet these growing demands, for example by giving you the possibility to supplement foreign body detection with quantity and completeness checks.
Modular concepts are the basis for the most individual X-ray solutions
To allow us to guarantee the most accurate X-ray inspection food in your production, we have designed our technology so that it is inherently capable of creating the product gaps needed for the inspection. As a result, the products detected as defective during the inspection are removed from the current product flow using optionally available ejection mechanisms.
Your benefit: reliable detection of contaminated products and immediate removal from the batch. Our portfolio includes a wide range of air-cooled monoblocks or water-cooled metal-ceramic tubes with beryllium windows so that we can offer you exactly what you need for your individual process and your specific product. Diode line and camera detectors with HD-TDI technology are used as sensors. You benefit from reliable detection of a wide variety of foreign bodies such as electrically or magnetically conductive particles as well as glass, stones or plastic.
Optimally adjusted, it is thus possible to achieve false rejection rates approaching zero, even with high product numbers and speeds. And the fact that our X-ray inspection equipment finds even the smallest impurities in the product is another strong argument in our technology’s favour.
X-ray inspection systems: Use density information to supplement grey values and contrast
Determining grey values and contrast correctly is one thing. But if you have the highest demands in terms of accuracy, we can do a whole lot more for you. For example, we detect the density of a block of cheese and determine the weight of individual cheese slices from the information obtained in the density profile.
Your advantage is being able to fill constant quantities even when the cheese has holes in it. As a result, you can significantly reduce your overfilling costs while at the same time preventing underfilling.
Our software is the perfect addition to our hardware; it always supplies the best results when determining the contrast and grey values for products of differing densities.
Intelligent image processing, among other things, supports the following tasks depending on the product:
- Foreign body detection
- Completeness check
- Filling level check
- Shape and position check
- Position and distribution check
- Clip examination (closure)
- Mass determination
- Break and hole detection
- Automated maturity determination (for cheese)
Top-Down X-ray Inspection Systems and Multi-Flap Systems for Reliable Separation
Do you have low-profile products with a larger surface? In this case, our top-down X-ray inspection systems are an excellent choice. They inspect the product from above, while the camera taking the image is located underneath the conveyor belt.
Even if your core business is the processing of bulk goods such as rice, raisins or cereals, the use of top-down X-ray inspection systems is a sound decision. Multi-flap systems reduce the quantity of non-contaminated materials ejected by 80%; a significant saving of the good product. It’s almost only foreign bodies that land in the collection box. That’s quite something, isn’t it?
Find the right X-ray inspection system for your application now!
X-ray inspection using side-view X-ray inspection system
Are you filling containers of different heights and looking for an inspection machine that can be variably adjusted? Then you’ve just found it in our side-view X-ray inspection systems. The X-ray inspection systems position their X-ray tube depending on your product and its design. Your advantage is that X-ray source and detection unit are always optimally placed in relation to the product. The beam passes through the base and foreign bodies specifically in this area can be detected.
This makes side-view X-ray inspection systems with their vertically oriented images the best tool when you want to inspect cans or PET bottles parallel to the base or jars and bottles at an acute angle.
Find the right X-ray inspection system for your application now!
Even better together: X-ray & weighing or X-ray & vision inspection
Particularly when there is little room, quality assurance still has to work as reliably and precisely as in large spaces. The innovation: a combination of two or three solutions. In each case, X-ray inspection food forms the basis which we expand with the option of a checkweigher (SC-W), a vision inspection system (SC-V) or a checkweigher and vision inspection system (SC-W-V) – whatever you need. All in all, you benefit from the extremely space-saving version of two perfectly complementary inspection technologies. You notice it at the latest when you operate X-ray inspection and checkweigher via a common user interface.
With a maximum output of 300 packages per minute, you are always on the safe side, even in the multi-lane version. In addition to foreign body detection, this combination provides you with the best results of high-precision weight checking and simultaneous ejection of incorrect weight units.
A combination of X-ray inspection systems and vision inspection system is the ideal solution if your product requires a vision inspection from above and/or below in addition to foreign body detection. In this case, you have added value since the information printed on the product is also verified. And what’s more, the positioning and readability of labels can also be checked accurately. Another advantage: operation without curtains is possible. This makes the combination of X-ray inspection system and vision inspection the perfect solution for lightweight products such as mini cakes, biscuits or brownies.
Quality assurance of bulk goods: Early rejection of defective products
It makes economic sense if you process bulk goods to carry out quality assurance as early as possible so that you can process the maximum quantity of high-quality raw materials.
To ensure this works perfectly, lumpy products, such as meat cutlets or similar, require differing ejection systems which have to work as efficiently in high-speed mode as flap systems.
This is made possible by discharge belts designed as retraction belts. Your products drop out of the product flow through an opening created between two conveyor belts.
Alternatively, systems are used which can eject products within the system via a special reversing mode. Regardless of which version you use, thanks to particularly space-saving concepts, there are virtually no limits to the options for quality assurance of your bulk goods.
Hygiene requirements in the food industry
Many machines in the food industry are subjected to regular and intensive cleaning processes using high-pressure equipment and aggressive cleaning products. X-ray inspection systems from Wipotec are therefore made entirely of stainless steel with open base frames and rounded, bevelled surfaces from which the water can drain off quickly. The spaces inside are accessible and free of undercuts, enabling quick and thorough cleaning. This is facilitated by a weld-free product space and bevelled surfaces.
The standard protection class in the food industry is IP65. Systems with this classification provide protection against water spray from all directions. All X-ray inspection systems from Wipotec satisfy this protection class.
Protection class IP69k is one level higher. Systems of this class are also protected against the ingress of water, but in this case even with greatly increased pressure against the housing due to the use of high-pressure/steam jet cleaners. Many X-ray inspection systems from Wipotec can also be supplied in a version that meets protection class IP69k.
