The ability of automation to help food manufacturers to consistently achieve maximum throughput and operational efficiency without compromising on the highest product and pack quality standards will be the key message of the Ishida stand B05:19 in Hall B at Scanpack 2024.
In the wake of the cost-of-living crisis, consumers are seeking affordability with no loss of quality. At the same time, manufacturers are having to deal with continuing raw material price pressures as well as skills and labour shortages. And while maximising production efficiencies is vital, this cannot be at the expense of maintaining impeccable food safety standards.
At the exhibition, Ishida will showcase the breadth of its offering, including its latest developments in multihead weighing, inspection and quality control, and tray sealing, that can help overcome these challenges.
Ishida’s exhibits include the top of the range CCW-AS multihead weigher and unique Fresh Food Weigher (FFW), the recently launched IX-PD X-ray inspection system, and the award-winning QX-500 tray sealer.
As well as demonstrating these exciting automation solutions, Ishida experts will be on hand to explain how the equipment can be integrated to form full-line solutions tailored to individual customer requirements.
The Ishida CCW-AS multihead weigher on display features powerful, highly responsive radial feeders which provide more conveying power than conventional feeders. This further increases the weigher’s speed and accuracy, reduces product giveaway, and helps to increase output and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) levels. As a result, manufacturers can achieve the highest weighing speeds whilst maintaining close to 100% accuracy and consistency. In addition, the CCW-AS delivers a 20% reduction in energy consumption compared with previous models and noise levels have also been further reduced.
The top of the range Ishida IX-PD X-ray inspection system incorporates new sensor and image processing technology to achieve the highest level of detection sensitivity and deliver effective food safety and quality monitoring. It can identify both low-density and very small size foreign bodies, such as bones in fish fillets and stainless steel wires, with excellent accuracy, whilst enabling manufacturers to maintain high productivity rates. The new model is also able to reliably detect foreign bodies in applications where products are overlapping or standing up in a pack. The IX-PD has demonstrated in tests near 100% detection rates for bones in chicken, diced meat and sausages. This ability to accurately recognise the difference between food and foreign bodies reduces false detections and enables companies to maintain stringent quality control procedures without compromising throughput.
The new Ishida QX-500 tray sealer was the winner of the Innovative Packaging Machinery category at the 2023 PPMA Awards. Its compact design offers a 44% reduction in weight, 46% reduction in size and 50% reduction in energy consumption. Allowing easy integration into new and existing packing lines, the tray sealer delivers consistently high-quality seals and a major increase in packing line productivity while helping to reduce food and packaging waste.
Meeting customer demands for sustainable equipment design, the QX-500’s highly efficient servo motor technology minimises energy consumption and cost of operation.
The machine’s sustainable design also includes the introduction of highly efficient servo motor technology which minimises energy consumption and cost of operation.
In addition, a strong focus on the thermo-performance of the tool has removed the need for water cooling and thus the need for a water chiller.
Underlining the wide-ranging capabilities of the Ishida multihead weigher portfolio, the other model on display, the 6-head Ishida FFW, has been specifically designed for the accurate weighing of sticky and bruise-sensitive products such as fresh and marinated meat, poultry, seafood, cut fruit, cheese and ready meals. Its compact dimensions also make it suitable for factories with space and height limitations.
Special features include belt feeders and anti-stick hoppers with scraper gates that prevent build-up of residue. Product giveaway is less than 1% of pack weight and labour costs can be reduced by around three operators per shift.
