July 2024

Ingredient Batching System of Whey Powder, Skim Powder and Sugar for Ice Cream Production

In 2016 NBE worked in conjunction with a local company that makes ice cream to develop an automated ingredient batching system. The system would discharge ingredients from supersacks and transfer them to a gain in weight hopper using a pneumatic conveying system. The ingredients would then discharge into a mix tank that creates the base product to make the ice cream. In 2021 the customer again reached out to NBE due to the massive growth that they had been experiencing. They needed to find a way to increase their throughput with minimal additional available space. The plan was to add a second mixer that would nearly double their possible throughput. To keep up with the new supply, NBE recommended modifications to increase the speed of the pneumatic conveying system, added three new weigh hoppers with larger capacity, and updated the system controls to account for the added flexibility. NBE also worked with the customer to make some smaller overall system improvements based on the previous five years of use.

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Product Inspection Equipment for Meat, Poultry & Seafood

Cost pressure and short shelf life combined with complex regulatory requirements impact meat and poultry manufacturers. Packaging trends and market requirements for wider product variety add additional pressure. METTLER TOLEDO’s solutions are designed to make it easier to detect smaller contaminants, reduce product waste, minimize false rejects, maximize uptime and meet compliance needs.

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Leak Detection in Low Pressure PET Bottles

Detects leaks and low pressure in aerosol containers, LN2 dosed beverage containers, and carbonated beverage containers. Parallel belts transport the container past a sensor that measures the tension on the sidewall of the container. This action allows the system to measure the pressure inside the container. Utilizing DSP technology, the controller analyzes the measurement and assigns a merit value to each container. If the merit value is outside of the acceptable range, a reject signal activates a remote reject system.

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Leak Detection in Hot Filled Plastic Containers

Hot filled plastic containers are designed with vacuum panels or rings in the body side wall. These panels or rings help the container hold its shape after the container has cooled and drawn a vacuum. The contour of the “H” panels or vacuum panels can interfere with the inspection process on some container designs. Containers with rings in the sidewall typically do not interfere with the inspection process.

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Leak Detection in Aluminum Foil Drink Pouches

The T4000-Dual Sensor Compression system fi nds and rejects leaking and damaged fl exible bottles at production line speeds up to 250 feet per minute. The system is designed with dual parallel belts suspended over the customers’ existing conveying system. As the container passes through the system, the dual parallel belts apply force to the sidewall of the container. This action compresses the headspace of the container which allows a comparative measurement to be taken at both the infeed and the discharge of the system. Comparing the container to itself between the infeed and discharge of the system, eliminates typical variations seen in the production environment (Fill Level, Product Temperature, and Container Density). Utilizing advanced DSP technology the T4000 controller analyzes the comparative measurement and assigns a merit value to each container. If the merit value is outside of the acceptable range, a reject signal activates a remote reject system.

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Leak Detection for Yogurt Cups

TDLC sensor – The patented TDLC sensor is the latest innovation for TapTone’s Compression machines and was designed specifically for containers with a f lexible plastic or foil seal. The squeezing action of the compression system increases the head space pressure in the container, causing the foil or plastic seal to dome upward. This doming allows for a force measurement directly from the seal using the TDLC assembly. This technology allows for even more accurate and reliable leak inspection of a variety of cups and containers with these flexible seals.

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Identifying Fill Level, Seal Defects and Cocked Crowns in Bottled Beverages

X-Ray technology is used to measure the product fill level in steel, aluminum, glass, plastic and paper containers. An X-Ray tube energized at high voltage is used to produce a low energy X-Ray beam. This X-Ray beam is focused to look through the container in the expected fill level region. As the X-Ray beam penetrates the container, it is attenuated by the amount of product blocking the beam. The beam is monitored by a scintillation detector, which counts the X-Ray intensity after it goes through the container. The level of intensity is proportionate to the fill level of the container. User set rejection limits defines the high or low fill threshold. Five cans of craft beer with proper fill levels were passed through the X-Ray sensor with one can intentionally made to represent a “bad” can with a reduced f ill level. This series of tests clearly demonstrates the abilities of the TapTone T-550 X-Ray sensor to identify and reject cans with improper fill level.

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Fill Level and Damaged or Missing Pull Tabs in Canned Beverages

X-Ray technology is used to measure the product fill level in steel, aluminum, glass, plastic and paper containers. An X-Ray tube energized at high voltage is used to produce a low energy X-Ray beam. This X-Ray beam is focused to look through the container in the expected fill level region. As the X-Ray beam penetrates the container, it is attenuated by the amount of product blocking the beam. The beam is monitored by a scintillation detector, which counts the X-Ray intensity after it goes through the container. The level of intensity is proportionate to the fill level of the container. User set rejection limits defines the high or low fill threshold. Five cans of craft beer with proper fill levels were passed through the X-Ray sensor with one can intentionally made to represent a “bad” can with a reduced f ill level. This series of tests clearly demonstrates the abilities of the TapTone T-550 X-Ray sensor to identify and reject cans with improper fill level.

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Accurate and Gentle Feeding of Inclusions in Food Processes

Inclusions can add not only texture, flavor and nutritional value, they can also be used to add moisture. Dried mushrooms, for example are often used in sauces and soups or fillings to absorb moisture and help ingredient binding properties. Many of these specialty inclusions are also high in ingredient cost. For this reason, it is imperative that the method of delivery to the process below be extremely accurate and controlled, so that overfeeding is not experienced and control of these added costs can be maintained. The use of Coperion K-Tron loss-in-weight (LIW) feeders for the accurate addition of inclusions to the process ensures a consistent flow of these high value ingredients, and more importantly, a higher control of ingredient costs. This application sheet focuses on the use of the new Coperion K-Tron LIW vibratory feeders for a wide assortment of inclusion materials.

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