For those of you familiar with tuna products, you know the primary form of foreign material you’re worried about is bones; a serious food safety issue. Beyond bone, a variety of metals and plastics are also cause for concern.
Because tuna canning is an immensely high-speed operation, with cans operating well over rates of 1000 per minute, people are shocked about what we can find. The really secret sauce is that the Peco InspX high-wattage X-ray tube provides a high signal-to-noise ratio; so images have a lot more contrast than other competitive systems. And that’s really how, at the end of the day (coupled with software), we’ll find those bones.
Tuna cans come in a wide range of sizes and weights. Some tuna cans open with ring pulls and others are seamed (you use a can opener for those). There’s a difference in the inspection methodology because you don’t want variations in the ring pull to end up as a problem during imaging. (Don’t worry – Peco InspX has some special methods to get around that problem.)
Side View Systems
We recommend using our side view system for tuna can inspection, as it’s non-contact. Some of our competitors use top down machines; but they potentially don’t have enough power or image contrast to find something as small as a bone. They also involve an extra container handling, which is complicated.
Another advantage of X-ray inspection for tuna cans is that it can detect dents easily. If the dents are something you don’t mind, you can let the machine know they’re okay, and then the dents won’t cause a reject.
Foreign Materials We Find
- Metal
We can find the metal even resting on the bottom of the can. Even grooves don’t offer a limitation on the inspection efficacy. We can generally find down to a 1 mm piece of metal.
- Glass
We can find down to a 3 mm piece of glass anywhere in the container.
- Bones
These are very thin: anywhere from 0.2 to 1 mm wide. Plus, they’re very low density. Peco InspX high-contrast imaging technology makes sure even the smallest sizes are clearly visible.
- Wire
An asymmetric object that can be as thin as bone. Another way to find it is with a multi-beam system. So the asymmetric object with a small cross-section show up broadly.
- Plastic and Rubber
These are typically the harder-to-find objects. It matters what kind of plastic or rubber you’re trying to detect: density, length, type, etc.
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