metal detector setup
Metal Detector Setup
March 28, 2019
Food Safety Guidelines
What’s New With The Food Safety Guidelines
June 3, 2019
metal detector setup
Metal Detector Setup
March 28, 2019
Food Safety Guidelines
What’s New With The Food Safety Guidelines
June 3, 2019
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Customer Service

Customer Service

Why Regal Considers Customer Service Critical

In a culture that often equates money with success, the importance of customer service seems like a long-lost art.  But at Regal Packaging Services, we believe that customer service is critical to our success.   Customers, especially in the food industry, need to know that we stand beside and behind them.  What they do in producing or packaging their product and in food safety is important to us.  And it’s important to the consumer at the local grocery store.

To that end, our processes and procedures are designed to do just that.  We have the knowledge and expertise that our customers need to succeed.  Here’s an example:

What We Need to Know

A customer called and inquired, “What size test standards should I be using?”  Before we can answer the customer, we have to ask a few questions in return:

  1. What is your product?
  2. Is the product frozen or chilled?
  3. Is the product wet or dry?
  4. How is the product run through your metal detector?
  5. Is the product boxed, bagged or uncontained?
  6. What kind of metal detector do you have?
  7. What size is the aperture of your metal detector?
  8. Where are you placing the test standard?

Experience and Certification

Our salesman and service technicians have decades of experience.  So once those questions are answered (among others), we can provide a starting point.  In other words, we can tell the customer, “You should be able to achieve…”  If a company’s customer service representative doesn’t have access to that knowledge base, the customer is left in a quandary.  And no other company that makes test pieces can provide that.  Collectively, Regal has nearly a century of experience in metal detection and x-ray inspection.

Our Testrods Division is ISO 9001:2015 Certified,.  That means we have a Quality Management System (QMS) in place to maintain a set of production, inspection and quality control procedures.  Our policies ensure our customer gets a product they can trust.  We are continually striving to provide metal detection and x-ray inspection verification test pieces we know will work on the production line.

If our processes gets haphazard, it could mean that a consumer gets contaminated food at the family dinner table.

Process

Our procedures ensure that:

  1. Each lot of metal balls received from our supplier is NIST certified by size.  And that they are thoroughly tested for accuracy, consistency and detectability.
  2. Every acetal molded test pieces is verified for no trace of metal that might affect the final standard of measurement.  Acetal molded pieces are certified as food grade safe nearly indestructible, with a melting temperature over 300°F.
  3. Molded test pieces are engraved with size and type metal, including certificate number and our company information.  You’ll always know where your test pieces come from and where to find answers to your questions.
  4. The metal sample will remain intact, safely encased without concern that it will end up somewhere in your product.
  5. The adhesive used in the manufacturing process to encapsulate the metal standard has an application temperature over 350°F.  Its softening point will be 194°F and it is FDA approved for food contact.
  6. Before test pieces are sent to you, each piece is verified as having the correctly engraved information.  Your test pieces can be incorporated in your quality control process without worry. Test pieces are also checked to before shipping to meet our rigorous standard of excellence.  This includes a final test in a live metal detector to ensure proper levels of detectability.
  7. All products are guaranteed against manufacturing defects, and even custom products are returnable.  Should a return be necessary, we promise to act quickly and efficiently in getting the correct product in your hands.

The Final QA Check

At Testrods.com, we check, double check, triple check then re-check to mitigate against any kind of safety issue.  We value our customers’ business, and, more importantly, the safety of their customers!  Since we back our products with honesty, integrity and dependability, we believe we are the most trustworthy source of test pieces on the market.  And ISO Certification is part of the evidence to support that claim.

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Floatable Thermoform Test Cards

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.