32 MACHINERY UPDATE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 www.machineryupdate.co.uk
Feature: Security
On the left is a palletiser from Scott Automation handling frozen foods while on the right is the Fuji vision system used on its latest flow wrappers
Check, detect and track for secure manufacture A host of PPMA members across a range of technologies are offering equipment to inspect, detect, track and trace products in manufacture
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inebea Intec offers a range of foreign body detection and weighing solutions to help customers produce safe and secure products and says that an important addition to these technologies is a secure data collection system. By ensuring the checkweigher and other devices connect securely to such a system, weight data can be stored for use as a legal record. Records of rejected and contaminated product can also be stored so that there is evidence of supplying a safe and legal product. The company’s own SPC@Enterprise software suite interfaces with both its own and other devices to achieve this. A more recent addition to Minebea Intec’s portfolio is the VisioPointer vision inspection system. Multiple uses and configurations of this system including both top, bottom and side cameras enables packs and products to be checked from any side. Common uses are label checking, both for content and position, seal checking and packaging checks.
Obviously, the most basic function of checking for the presence of a label ensures that a product is identifiable to the consumer but checking in more detail for crucial information such as allergens, handling advice and best before dates are correct and legible provides a higher level of safety to the end user. Checking seals on a pack adds an additional element of security. At the same time, Scott Automation has developed palletising systems for frozen foods that offer integrity and tracking benefits. With the need to maintain low product temperatures an absolute necessity, and the need for a robust traceability system, the process of securely palletising and conveying frozen or chilled products
created a need for dedicated fault free tracking solutions, both to ensure there is no interruption to the cold chain and to provide full traceability for each product and/or container, says the company. The Scott MultiLine system ensures that there is a zero chance of mixing SKUs as each product batch is buffered and transferred to its dedicated pallet in isolation. Product ID and count are integral parts of the system which tracks each SKU through to the pallet build, pallet wrapping and automatic labelling to display the relevant bar coding. The tracking information is then available for transfer to the customer’s database as part of their traceability recording requirements. This also provides proof that each
It used to be that a series of random checks in production and packaging processes would be enough to guarantee security – but not today
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