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Metal Detector Upgrade Helps Cheesemaker Satisfy Growing Demand

Improved sensitivity, an automated reject system, and data transparency all contribute to better inspection efficiencies for Dutch cheese producer.

Upgrading all of its production lines with a new incline layout, Vepo Cheese added a Fortress Interceptor metal detector with each line.
Upgrading all of its production lines with a new incline layout, Vepo Cheese added a Fortress Interceptor metal detector with each line.
Vepo Cheese

With both local and international cheese markets continuing to grow, Vepo Cheese upgraded all seven of its production lines at its Oudewater factory in the Netherlands. The cheesemaker also decided it needed a more fail-safe inspection solution integrated into those lines to help support the burgeoning production demands.

Turning to Fortress Technology, Vepo Cheese had several demands from the company’s metal detectors, according to Hugo van Put, Vepo’s technical operations manager. They needed to be tightly integrated with the production lines in order to provide a safer environment for workers; quality needed to be 100% guaranteed, with an automatic reject system; and Vepo wanted all seven lines to have identical metal detectors.

Upgrading all of its production lines with a new incline layout, Vepo Cheese added a Fortress Interceptor metal detector with each line.Upgrading all of its production lines with a new incline layout, Vepo Cheese added a Fortress Interceptor metal detector with each line.Vepo CheeseDutch machine builder and integrator Jansen Control Systems was tasked to design the compact incline conveyor systems, each tightly integrated with a vertical packaging machine, metal detector, and peripheral equipment. “They needed a metal detection system that connected perfectly to their existing vf/f/s [vertical form/fill/ seal] machine with the same footprint,” says Gerard Schuurman, managing director at Jansen Control Systems. “In addition, it had to meet the latest requirements, with all the necessary sensors.”

Vepo operators were familiar with the Fortress technology, van Put notes, and were impressed with its ease of use. Though first considering Fortress’s Stealth system, they ultimately discovered the increased sensitivity of the Fortress Interceptor metal detector and the advantages it could bring for cheese applications.

Conductivity challenges

Jansen Control Systems, which specializes in food applications, has seen a call for increased inspection sensitivity in general. “Nowadays, our customers are looking more and more at how they can improve sensitivity—on the one hand because their customers demand it and on the other hand because they want to present themselves as best in class,” Schuurman says.

Jansen Control Systems designed each incline conveyor to be fully integrated with the Interceptor metal detector, vertical packing system, and peripheral equipment.Jansen Control Systems designed each incline conveyor to be fully integrated with the Interceptor metal detector, vertical packing system, and peripheral equipment.Vepo CheeseBut that detection sensitivity is particularly important when it comes to producing cheese because its high conductivity and variety of forms make it one of the most challenging products for metal detection. “Inspecting wet products has for many years presented cheesemakers with several challenges. Due to the high moisture content, combined with minerals and salt, cheese—like metal—can be very conductive, resulting in a high level of product effect,” explains Eric Garr, regional sales manager for Fortress. “Also, in many cases, the product effect of cheese may lack a specific phase point as it moves through the aperture of a metal detector, adding to the challenge of overcoming the product effect.”

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