A food manufacturer has reportedly saved £80,000 a year after investing in a Minebea Intec X-ray system.
Premier Foods in Knighton wanted to move towards fully recyclable packaging as well as end of line testing to reduce wastage.
The firm blends, processes and packs powdered foods and drinks such as custard, dried skimmed milk and cocoa powder.
Premier Foods moved to end of line testing using the X-ray inspection system Dymond S to scan complete packaged products. Prior to this, the business was scanning bulk material using metal detection. Testing for ferrous, non-ferrous and stainless steel was done every hour, which Minebea Intec revealed created waste product at a ‘high cost’.
Premier Foods wanted to transition to packaging that was fully recyclable by replacing a metal lower end with paper.
By using Dymond S, Minebea Intec said the firm now loses just one container when a reject is detected and can use existing containers with product in to do their routine hourly tests.
In addition to metal, other foreign bodies such as glass and stone can also be detected.
Lee Millward, engineering manager for Premier Foods, Knighton, said, “The Dymond S detection range is much better than what we had before, it gives us greater scope to test for smaller foreign bodies.”
The investment has also saved time and costs in cleaning, as the old reject system had lots of pipework that required cleaning. Because Premier Foods is now checking completed product in containers, there’s no mess and no cleaning.
Lee Millward added, “There’s no waste which is a cost saving of £80k per year which means the machine has paid for itself in just over a year – that’s a phenomenal ROI considering the life expectancy of this machine.”
Premier Foods also opted for the Premium Plus Service, which guarantees response times of up to four hours.
“I give Minebea Intec 10/10 and I’ve already recommended the X-ray machine to our other manufacturing sites at managers meetings,” Lee revealed. “The product, the staff and the overall experience has been excellent.
“Minebea Intec offered the best solution for our needs; the unique design of the Dymond S Side Shoot X-ray system fits perfectly into our production line as it doesn’t take up as much space as other X-rays on the market.”
