Solutions to help companies maximise efficiency and quality will be showcased on the Ishida stand at this year’s PPMA Total Show.
With manufacturers having to deal with soaring raw material prices in already very price-competitive markets, while at the same time maintaining rigorous quality standards, the need for packing lines to become leaner and more efficient in order to increase yields and throughput and minimise waste has never been greater.
The equipment on display from Ishida’s multihead weigher, checkweigher and X-ray inspection system ranges will demonstrate how the company’s technical expertise and longstanding experience can help companies achieve their production and quality targets. Alongside the machines on display, Ishida experts will be available to discuss specific customer projects and challenges and outline Ishida’s wide-ranging capabilities in the design and installation of fully integrated packing lines.
From its extensive range of multihead weighers, Ishida will show two models developed for specialist applications. The 14-head CCW-RV-214W-GS is designed to weigh fragile products such as biscuits and confectionery, reducing product breakages by up to 20%, while the proven 6-head Ishida CCW-R2-106WB Fresh Food Weigher (FFW) can handle sticky fresh and bruise-sensitive products with ease and efficiency.
Ishida’s quality control solutions will be represented by the company’s IX-EN-4093-S, a high-performance entry-level X-ray inspection system that combines impressive sensitivity with minimal operating costs; and the DACS-G-F015 checkweigher, developed in particular for high-speed production lines.
The Ishida CCW-RV-214W-GS uses gentle slopes and reduced angles throughout the weigher to ease the passage of hard, brittle or delicate products. In particular, the innovative curved hopper design creates controlled decelerations that allows product to roll and settle gradually, minimising breakages. The weigher also delivers unsurpassed accuracy, thanks to its unique triple combination calculation software that can calculate three optimal weight combinations, double check them and then select the one nearest to the target weight - all in a single cycle. This minimises error discharges and increases efficiency.
The Ishida CCW-R2-106B Fresh Food Weigher (FFW) provides a semi-automatic solution for handling very sticky fresh and bruise-sensitive products and is particularly suitable for factories with height limitations. The weigher can receive product from a conveyor belt to the top of the weigher, where one or two operators evenly distribute it via belt feeders to the weigh hoppers. This helps to maximise the speed and efficiency of the weighing process. The FFW’s ergonomic layout makes it easy to spread out products on the feeder table and the belt feeders facilitate a precise and consistent product feed to the hoppers. Features such as scraper hopper gates, ribbed surfaces and scraper gates on the collection belt conveyors minimise product sticking.
The IX-EN-4093-S entry-level inspection system combines impressive sensitivity with minimal operating costs. The machine incorporates Ishida’s unique Genetic Algorithm (GA) image processing technology which delivers superior inspection sensitivity. It can reliably detect foreign bodies including steel, aluminium, tin, glass, stones, dense rubber, plastic, bones and shells for unrivalled food safety in a wide range of packaged and unpackaged food products.
The X-ray system can also carry out additional quality checks such as identifying damaged or missing items, weight estimation and counting components.
In Addition, the system on display is fitted with hygienic design ancillaries to meet UK retailer quality standards and codes of practice.
The high performance DACS-G-F015 checkweigher with integrated metal detector uses the company’s Force Restoration weigh cell to deliver precision weighing accuracy. The machine’s Force Limiting Disconnect feature prevents damage to the weigh cell and extends machine life.
The checkweigher is fitted with Ishida Retail Reject Confirmation (RRC) to help food manufacturers meet the latest retail codes of practice.
The machine on display also features Ishida’s proven IDCS (Ishida Data Capture System), a powerful software that captures and manages data from every pack that passes over the checkweigher. This provides in-depth real time performance monitoring that helps to identify opportunities for performance improvement and enhancement throughout the line to deliver increased Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).