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View additional product information for APEX Upgrade - FAQs (APEXUPGRADE)
10 product FAQs found
Small metal foreign objects have very small signals, and the food metal detector is operating in a factory that has many possible noise sources that can confuse the metal detector electronics and software. Make sure you address some of these sources that can interfere with your testing:
- Large motors turning on and off
- Electronics boxes broadcasting wide spectrums of radiated noise
- Production equipment vibrating and causing the antenna in the metal detector to move ever so slightly
- Electrical power surging and dropping
- Temperatures going from freezing to boiling and back again
It is widely understood that ferrous metals are the easiest to detect due to their magnetic properties. An electromagnetic field reacts most to ferrous metal, and the lower the frequency, the greater the reaction. Conversely, stainless steel, which contains only a small amount of ferrous metal, has little or no magnetic property. Metal detectors must run at a high frequency to find stainless steel because the high frequency field induces a current in the stainless steel which creates a new field that interacts with the original field in the metal detector to create a signal.
When metal is missed on the leading or trailing edges of a standard food grade metal detector, adjust sensitivity per the manufacturer's recommendation and when required, increase metal size until it is detected.
Place metal spheres in multiple locations on the food package, always trying to keep the metal at the midline of the head height and middle of the package. Test the leading and trailing ends, both sides, the absolute center of package (whenever possible), and the top. Specify the smallest metal detected in ALL locations.
For all food grade metal detectors, eliminate as much background noise as possible. Then start with the manufacturer's default settings. Ensure that production samples are used for setup.
The default sensitivity setting is 6 dB (or 50%) below the peak signals encountered during the learn process. If the product has an inconsistent signal, this generally is a safe setting. If the signal is very consistent, you may be able to increase sensitivity to 3 dB (or 30%) below the peak signals. For standard metal detectors, set the detect thresholds to about 1.2 to 1.5X the maximum product signal. For Multiscan food metal detectors, the equipment testing best practice is to set both in and out of phase at 3 dB less (1.4X) than the reject signal (36 dB).
“Frozen” is a general term. For metal detection, it is critical that the actual product temperature and state are fully understood as results will change drastically. Products that are completely frozen to the core will often “learn” as a dry product does with little to no product effect. In contrast, a partially frozen product will respond much differently passing through a metal detector and can cause excessive false rejects as production conditions vary throughout the day. Ideally, it is best to set up the metal detector for frozen food industry in the production environment at the correct temperature and state.
For wet and conductive food products, center the package vertically in the head, ensuring the same amount of distance is above and below the package. Often this means that the head height will be larger than the standard sizing recommendation. This helps reduce the product signal by moving the product away from the electromagnetic coils.
For most applications, size of the aperture is 2 inches wider and 2 inches taller than the largest package intended to pass through the food grade metal detector.
The size of the food metal detector head is based on the dimensions of the food package. Always simulate production conditions as closely as possible, including speed, temperature, and orientation of the product.