18 Feb 2010 --- Weighing and packing equipment specialist Ishida Europe will be displaying a variety of meat packing solutions at this year’s IFFA exhibition, including a complete high-speed tray packing line, state-of-the-art fresh food weighers, an advanced X-ray inspection system, and the latest checkweigher developments, all of which demonstrate the company’s expertise in weighing accuracy, inspection and quality control.

The high-speed tray packing line combines Ishida’s advanced weighing and tray sealing systems to deliver exceptional efficiency in the handling of fresh meat and ready meals. Product is weighed into trays, sealed and labelled, the seals are leak-tested and the labels optically inspected before the trays are placed into Eurocrates.

The line features a high speed Ishida RS-216 multihead weigher, which offers exceptional weighing accuracy to maximise production throughput, the world’s fastest and most efficient tray sealer (the Ishida QX-1100) an MR labeller, seal tester with integrated vision system, and an Ishida IPS pick and place system, which offers many options in tray packing and crate layout.

Output of up to 120 trays per minute can be achieved with minimal waste, manual handling and maintenance requirements, and close to zero downtime levels.

Ishida will also be demonstrating its CCW-R-214 Screw Feeder Weigher, which provides fully automatic, accurate and consistent weighing of fresh sticky meat, poultry and ready meals. The Screw Feeder design utilises the familiar circular multihead weigher layout but incorporates unique rotating corkscrews to replace the traditionally used radial feeder troughs, providing a powerful, controlled and fully automatic product feed to the pool and weigh hoppers.

Another solution for sticky meat products is Ishida’s NZ-106 Fresh Food Weigher (FFW), which features a linear multihead design, fed by belts from an infeed table. Operators are stationed within comfortable reach of the product infeed, and adjust the flow of product so that each pool hopper receives a roughly equal amount.

Weigh hoppers sit beneath the pool hoppers, and below these booster hoppers, which hold product not initially selected by the computer. This frees up the weigh hoppers to accept more product and means that in calculating the best combination of hoppers whose weight comes closest to the target weight, the weigher has more combinations to choose from, enabling it to be faster and even more accurate.

An Ishida DACS-W checkweigher will also be demonstrated along with the company’s pioneering Ishida Data Capture System (IDCS). The IDCS is a powerful software tool that captures the data from every single pack that passes across up to 100 Ishida checkweighers and converts it into real-time displays and easy-to-read reports. By highlighting cost saving opportunities, it provides prompts to take action that can have an immediate impact on a food manufacturer’s or packer’s bottom line.

Data can be analysed by batch, shift, operator, product or machine, with fully customised reports, and is accessed either on-site or remotely using secure Ethernet connections. Companies can use the information from the IDCS to increase line efficiencies by, for example, identifying the causes of unplanned downtime or excessive product giveaway.

Ishida’s IX range of X-ray inspection systems can detect a variety of contaminants including metal, glass, bones, shells, stones, hard rubber and plastic. The machines incorporate unique self-learning Genetic Algorithm (GA) technology, which offers maximum detection sensitivity and reliability, with the most sophisticated models detecting impurities down to 0.3mm in size, and also spotting missing items or damaged products.