The line, at the biscuit and pastry manufacturer’s facility, in Zonnebeke, Belgium, caters to its sugar-glazed puff pastry biscuits in two shapes – Twists and Palmiers.
Aluminium foil seals
The line at Poppies’ factory comprises an Ishida CCW-R-108P linear multihead weigher with distribution system for trays and bags of biscuits, an Ishida DACS checkweigher and IX-GA 4075 X-ray system.
Geert Vandoorne, production manager, Poppies, told BakeryandSnacks, prior to the X-ray system it had a metal detector further down the line, due to additional pieces of equipment, when the biscuits came out of the oven.
“This created a problem because some of the trays have aluminium foil seals, while the bags are tied with a metal clip, and these factors would prevent the metal detector from operating properly,” he said.
Now, Ishida’s X-ray system can detect unwanted objects through metallized film, and its technology can mask the metal clip on the bags without reducing the detection performance of foreign bodies. Missing or additional clips are also identified.
After baking, the biscuits are taken on an inclined conveyor through a ventilation system that cools them down before being transferred to a bucket elevator to take them to the linear mulithead weigher.
The multihead weigher achieves 50 packs per minute on a typical 125g tray. Accuracy is to within 0.5g and overall the weigher has an efficiency level in excess of 95%.
“Previously, operators checked the fill level of the trays or bags by sight to assess if the correct amount was in each pack but this led to excessive giveaway on occasions. Now, every pack is close to its target weight,” added Vandoorne.
Biscuit buffering system
He said an important modification to the line is the inclusion of a buffering system for the biscuits.
If there is a problem further down the packing line, the feed conveyor to the bucket elevator goes into a backward and forward motion to collect the biscuits and hold them, so the problem can be fixed. Once the line is restarted, the biscuits are gradually re-fed to the bucket elevator.
The IX-GA 4075 X-ray system can spot contaminants and pinpoint the location of any foreign object despite the fact the biscuits are densely packed in the bags and trays.