Thermo develops fill-level monitoring technology
claims offers ultra-safe high speed technology to monitor fill
level and closures.
The system is designed to help food manufacturers achieve greater cost efficiencies. Detecting costly product under fills, over fills and missing or misapplied closures can contribute to significant savings over the financial year.
In addition, EU rules oblige food manufacturers to bear full responsibility for the products they produce and the introduction of a system to enable them to ensure the safety and quality of the foodstuffs they produce or handle. This involves both applying the principles of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) system and use by producers of quality assurance, often in the form of company certification.
The Inscan system achieves all of this and is especially suited as an accurate measurement and quality control solution for beverage lines. Operating at speeds up to 2,400 containers per minute, the system uses patented, two-dimensional x-ray imaging software to capture detailed images.
Thermo claims that this advanced operator and product-safe technology captures detailed images with false rejects significantly reduced because of the system's ability to differentiate between liquid and foam.
In an environment free from radioactive gamma rays, the process developed by Thermo monitors multiple parameters to simultaneously inspect fill level, net content, under and overfill; liquid and foam differentiation; pressure detection and missing or misaligned lid, cap or crown. The InView closure inspection system rejects containers with non-conforming closures avoiding down stream stoppages and potential consumer complaints.
Extending the capability of InScan, an optional filler valve monitoring and tracking system uses the captured data and synchronises it to a specific filler valve automatically detecting potential fill-valve performance issues. As a result, operators are alerted to trends and can avoid costly line shutdowns.
US-based Thermo has an annual turnover of more than $2 billion and employs approximately 10,000 people in 30 countries.
