Checkweighers are essential tools used in various industries to help ensure accurate weight measurements of products. They are designed to weigh items quickly and accurately as they move along a conveyor belt, helping manufacturers maintain quality control and compliance with regulatory standards. The newest technology takes checkweighing to the next level of speed and accuracy.
Checkweighing Basics
Checkweighing technology is vital to weighing and counting products in motion and rejecting products that do not meet pre-determined specifications. As a package moves onto the checkweigher infeed, it is weighed using a weigh cell in the weigh table. The package then moves onto the outfeed of the checkweigher to be accepted or rejected according to the checkweigher settings. If a problem is indicated, a product is rejected and removed from the conveyor via an air blast, bopper, or pusher. The rejected products can also be diverted or dropped into a separate area for further inspection.
We have previously written about the reasons for using a checkweigher, including brand security, meeting customer expectations as well as regulations, plant efficiency, and weight control. Delivering consistent quality products is essential to protect your brand and your bottom line. That means knowing that the weight of a packaged product being shipped out the door matches the weight on the label.
There are a range of high-quality checkweighers that cater to different industry needs, including food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and consumer goods. The goal of the technology is to provide manufacturers with the capability to weigh, count, and reject items within a single, dynamic system.
The key to success of these systems is to deliver reliable accuracy in weighing variable package sizes, even those that are large and heavy or small and lightweight, without stopping the checkweigher conveyor.
What is a Slack Belt Design?
In a traditional conveyor belt system (left below), the motor that drives the movement of the belt is typically located underneath the conveyor. The motor is directly connected to the belt and is responsible for driving it at a specific speed. Whereas the slack belt design (below right) has a motor that is isolated from the weighing platform, which instead of being directly connected to the belt, the motor is mounted beneath the conveyor belt and isolated from the loadcell.
This isolated motor design helps to minimize the vibrations and mechanical disturbances that can occur in very high-speed applications. By separating the motor from the load cell and weighing platform, the potential for motor-induced vibrations to interfere with the weight measurements is significantly reduced, allowing for more precise and reliable weight readings for light weight applications with high speed and high accuracy requirements.
The slack belt design allows fast-moving products to transfer with a low risk of unbalancing and with as little vibration as possible to decrease settling time on weighing.
Read more about checkweigher slack design in this application note: Enhancing accuracy and efficiency for high speed lightweight applications.
Summary
By utilizing checkweighers that utilize the slack belt design, manufacturers can expect more versatile, accurate, and efficient systems that uphold stringent quality standards and regulatory compliance, ultimately driving operational excellence.
Additional Resources
- Application note: Enhancing accuracy and efficiency for high speed lightweight applications.
- Online resources: Technologies and Solutions to Improve Food Weighing and Inspection
- Ebook: A Practical Guide to Checkweighing and Checkweighers
