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Plastic ContaminantsPlastic Contaminants

The battle in food safety encompasses a wide variety of issues.  In addition to the struggle against food borne pathogens and allergens, there is the ever-present need for detection of metal and plastic contaminants.  And each company in the food industry will need to determine the best means for contending with these challenges.  Some will find the challenge of plastic contaminants especially difficult because it may require an image scanning technology (perhaps augmented by AI) to effectively filter out and reject the unwanted material.  Plastic can occur in an array of colors and sizes.

A recent article in Food Safety News outlined an application in which “Protein powder [was] recalled because of plastic [contaminants].”2 For obvious reasons, no company wants to face this kind of situation.  A recall not only affects consumer safety (the most critical concern) but also a company’s bottom line.  It means loss in time, product and all the other associated costs that go into producing and shipping a particular food and then paying for it to be returned.

“​Most commercially available … vision systems work best for regularly structured and/or manufactured elements.  Organic items such as potatoes and apples, or shrimp and fish have inherent irregularities and variations that require more complex computer vision systems.”1

Here at the Testrods.com division of Regal Packaging Services, we’re working hard to meet the challenge with plastic contaminants that are not only uniform but also color variable, yet consistent.  We’re researching a variety of plastics and colors with a vision to simulate the diverse plastics that may occur as impurity in each application.  In a growingly aggressive food safety culture, we realize it’s about more than just metal detection and x-ray inspection.  We’ve successfully mastered the contaminant simulate for those two types of machinery and have been doing it for 25 years.  But today, customers are increasingly asking us for what, in some ways, is the next phase product in the evolution of food safety and contaminant detection, something that will work with image scanning technology.

In a recent customer test, we were able to successfully mimic 5 different kinds of plastic contaminants. And we can do that in a variety of customized sizes without incurring exorbitant pricing for the customer.   Sizing, in this kind of situation, doesn’t require NIST certification, because the plastic being simulated doesn’t need to produce a specific signal on the machinery the way a metal detector or x-ray inspection system might require.  It only needs to mimic the plastic contaminant (or some other non-plastic material).  And within certain limitations, the size can be specified by you, the customer. In this case, we simulated 7.0 x 7.0 x 7.0mm sizes of plastic contaminants.

You can imagine how difficult it might be, without some kind of standardized test pieces, to set up a vision system so that it proficiently finds and rejects multiple variations of plastic contaminants.  The machine will need some set of reference points to evaluate the difference between the product and the plastic.  It may require a bit of conversation and a little bit of testing to determine what will work in a certain setting with a specific product, but it is more than reasonably possible for us to find what is needed.

We have the experience to meet the difficulties of testing for plastic contaminants in your application.  No other company is uniquely qualified to understand the issues of contaminant detection.

Give us a call at 866-691-8560 or email us at testrods@testrods.com and we’ll do our best to meet the challenge of finding plastic contaminant in your production process.

 

 

 

 

4 Comments

  1. Gtobob@regalpack.com says:

    Excellent write up BK!

    • brian says:

      Thanks, Bob. Testrods is working hard to meet the demands of vision systems. We can create customized solutions for our customers and are happy to walk through the potential design details as needed.

  2. Select Field Service, Inc says:

    Interesting article. Thank You, Gentlemen.

    • brian says:

      Thanks for taking time to read. It can be a bit of art form using X-ray and vision systems. Getting the appropriate colors and setting test standards is especially critical in vision systems.

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Some applications involve large tubs, vats, or some other type of product travel where it would be nice to have a test piece that floats. Once again, our thermoform cards provide the simplest solution. We simply insert some type of structure that forces the thermoform card to retain air, which, of course, is what makes it float. We have also manufactured floating rods, which are more difficult because there is less space to close in enough air to make the rod float but is doable.

We took an ordinary plastic “chip clip” as defined by the customer and embedded the contaminant into the clip. The clip can be attached to the product on the line without damaging or opening the product for testing purposes.

Bone is a difficult contaminant to find because it can vary widely based on the size, age, and calcium content (as well as feed used) of the animal. After working with several customers, Regal Packaging Services offers Pork, Beef and Chicken Bone Simulate. We have a small range of sizes at a variety of depths to simulate whatever you might expect to find in the product. Our recommendation (assuming your x-ray has visual display) is always to start with a multi-card. Using a multi-card gives you an easy way to test several sizes and depths to determine what matches the bone you’re using. Once you’ve made a comparison, testing the card against the bone you’re looking for, you can purchase a card with a single contaminant for regular testing.

This small pill shaped test piece is used in a system with a vacuum tube that shoots the test piece through the aperture and returns it to the “home” base. Your system may never be like it, but the point is that we can make a customized solution no matter how unusual or impossible it might seem.

As you may have seen in some of the other thermoform card descriptions, we can put nearly as many seeds as you can imagine on a single card. Pictured here you will find a wide variety of configurations and contaminants. Just let us know your specs: size of the card (up to 8” x 8”) along with size and type contaminant(s) and we’ll get you a quote as quickly as possible. Working with a multi-card is especially helpful when you are looking for multiple types of contaminants or when you want to determine what size of the same contaminant you are able to detect. In that event, once the size is chosen, you can order individual card(s) for regular, standard inspection and detection.

There are a wide range of applications that require a test piece much longer than our standard 5” or 6” Testrods. We can make up to 3/8” x 34” or 1/2” x 34” rigid test pieces which can then be extended well beyond that length with a “handle” made of acetal cylinder larger than the 3/8” or 1/2” extension. In the photos, we used a 1” x 24” cylinder handle with a 3/8” x 24” inch extension.

Test pieces can be made in a variety of sizes and given a pointed end in applications that require the contaminant (metal) to be inserted into a food package such as sugar or some other soft packaged food product. This allows the metal to reach the center of the aperture.

Double-End Test Whips are also available, with metal in both ends. One consideration is to make certain that the whip is long enough to keep the metal on the non-testing side of the whip outside the metal free zone of your detector. If you insert, for instance one end of a whip with 2.0mm and 3.0mm Ferrous, you need to make certain that the 2.0mm metal doesn’t affect the detection of the 3.0mm metal (and vice versa). If the 3.0mm metal is inside the metal free zone, then the detector will be reacting to the 2.0 as well as the 3.0 as if they were combined.

Multi-seed laminate test cards are designed for seeds 4.0mm or less. Multi-cards are useful in x-ray inspection to determine what sizes and types of contaminants your system can achieve. They can be especially useful in temperate environments and applications. If your application is rugged or wet, or your standards are larger, we recommend our thermoform multi-cards.

We can simulate a variety of packaging in an application where you need the test piece to mimic what is traveling down the production line. In this case, we manufactured a clear “package” with the seed inside. With this method, the customer is able to reject the container appropriately, and, in the event the package is not rejected, it is easily seen by the line worker for manual removal.

There are two types of “candy bars” pictured here – one similar to a flat candy bar and the other in a custom, near perfect copy of a candy bar. Since we’re now able to produce many variations using colored material, the copy was made in red (Fe), green (NFe) and blue (SS 316). We have the equipment to accomplish nearly anything you can imagine, and these kinds of designs are proof positive.

Need a test piece that looks and handles like chicken nugget? We can do it. Interestingly enough, in this situation, our first version for the customer left too much “void” in the hole where the metal was placed. Given the sensitivity the customer system was using, the void had the effect of causing false positives. We were able to minimize that hole and supply the test piece with almost no void. It’s an example of how we can work with you before, during and after manufacturing to ensure all the specifications were met.

Our standard acetal card is 2 1/4"x3 3/8,” but if needed, we can cut that size down to as small as 1 1/4” x 1 1/4” (with limited engraving). If a larger card or a card with multiple seeds is needed, see our Custom Shape-Size Blocks and Tablets.

This distinctive test piece was created to mimic an actual hamburger patty. The customer supplied photos of the raw product, which we were able to reproduce and then we placed blue glove contaminant. Using this configuration, the customer was able to determine what size piece the vision scanning system could detect with the raw burger as the background. Had they simply used a blank card with the glove, the system could easily have achieved contaminant rejection, but they needed to be sure the system could “see” the blue against the product itself.

A card with 100 seeds in a 10x10 configuration is used to place beneath whole chickens on a production line. This gives the x-ray system operator the ability not just to see IF the equipment can detect the metal in the card, but also WHERE the equipment can detect it. If there is a problem, the operator (or company) can make any changes necessary to achieve the end goal – safe chicken in this case. This card really highlights another valuable facet of our thermoform cards.

In this scenario, a company processing sugar needed to have a “bag” simulated with the same weight in order to accurately fall through the reject mechanism. A lighter test piece had the risk of passing over the reject mechanism.

Our standard cubes are 1” and 1.5,” but we can also manufacture other sizes if needed. The cubes shown here are 1/2" in dimensions. Cubes can be helpful in applications where a ball or cylinder may bounce or roll away during testing, making their retrieval difficult, or, in some cases, present a hazard to the product or production equipment.

This is a test piece that is dropped into a bottle. It’s designed so that the metal appears in the center of the aperture when testing the metal detector. In addition, the round stop makes the test piece easily removable after testing.

Hexagonal Shaped test pieces can be very useful in places where a cylinder or ball might roll or bounce around a production floor whether dropped by a line worker or ejection from a reject mechanism. Hexagons are similar in weight to the 1inch cylinders without having the smooth, rounded cylinder edge.

Our customer in this plant needed a test piece with a thickness less than 5.0mm. Because we have the capacity to customize sizes and shapes, we were able to mill down a product that met their specifications. That’s always our goal, meeting the specs you need for your product, testing environment and contaminants.