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A&Z Pharmaceutical Keeps Supplement Quality in Line

Chute-fed checkweigher also reduces labor, speeds production and increases accuracy at the company’s Hauppauge, NY facility.

The IM3100 is a chute-fed checkweigher designed to achieves better accuracy than most dynamic belt-driven systems.
The IM3100 is a chute-fed checkweigher designed to achieves better accuracy than most dynamic belt-driven systems.

With more than 450 employees and a growing number of research and manufacturing facilities, A&Z Pharmaceutical is dedicated to advancing healthier lives via high-quality nutritional supplements. At its Hauppauge, NY facility, A&Z produces D-Cal®, a vitamin D and calcium supplement, which is sold in the U.S. and China.

In 2016, A&Z turned to Mettler-Toledo Hi-Speed to improve their production efficiencies, selecting an unusual chute-fed checkweigher, which helps ensure final product quality, reduce labor and speed production.

“Before we installed our IM3100 checkweigher, we did all of our weighing off-line. It took two people three days to do 100% inspection because of the time involved in opening up boxes, hand-feeding pouches into an off-line checkweigher and completing the paperwork,” says Mark Appledorf, A&Z’s Plant Engineer.

This line packages granular D-Cal into strips of 10 pouches with a vertical/form/fill/seal (VFFS) machine that uses volumetric filling cups to measure product into each sachet. The strips are then cut in half, creating two strips of five pouches. A pick-and-place system deposits the strips to the two infeeds of the dual-lane checkweigher, which handles up to 55 strips/min in each lane. Each strip of five pouches measures 2.5 x 7.5 in. in size and weighs only 7.4 grams.

“We selected the IM3100 because of its ability to maintain impressive accuracy at high speeds despite vibrations on the line,” says Jose Rios, A&Z’s R&D Technician. “Mettler-Toledo quoted an accuracy of +/- 50 mg and a top speed of 60 packages per minute on each lane. We’re actually achieving an accuracy of +/- 25 to 30 mg because our current throughput is a little slower than the rated max capacity. We like that our checkweigher has the ability to grow with us as business expands.”

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