What to know about checkweighers in the food industry. In today’s highly regulated food production industry, accuracy, safety and efficacy of food production are paramount. This has led to a surge in technologies that allow producers to meet exacting legislation and food safety standards, whilst continuing to preserve margins and satisfy their customer base.
What are checkweighers
Checkweighers and catchweighers are automated weight measurement devices used across a multitude of industries, from food and pharma production through to mail sorting offices.
In the sausage manufacturing industry, checkweighers are essential pieces of equipment. The former is used to reliably control the weight of sausage fillings, to ensure that every piece is filled to exacting measurements for consistency and quality.
These checkweighers are fully automatic and have been designed specifically for the food industry; demonstrating how technological solutions are becoming increasingly bespoke for specific industrial needs.
When used at an industrial level, food production technologies such as checkweighers and catchweighers need to be:
– Robust and able to withstand the high processing volumes of industrial operations
– Completely accurate to set weights
– Able to operate extremely fast, for example, up to 250 packages every minute, and in weights that can be as much as 3kg.
How do checkweighers work?
In the example above, every package is transported using a pair of chains that are integrated into the checkweigher. As each package enters the system, it is weighed and checked against highly precise parameters, set by the administrator. Any product which is found to have a faulty weight is automatically ejected from the process. This ensures that every sausage is filled uniformly.
What are the benefits of checkweighers?
The benefits of these industry-tailored pieces of tech are multiple and include:
– The ability to completely control fillings and weight to a 100% accurate degree
– Precision controlling and weighing that far exceeds anything a human operator could achieve
– The ability to support stringent food safety guidelines
– Extremely fast operating capacities that are designed to work on the quickest production lines
– The ability to ensure that products are kept at the set weight, in order to avoid any production cost waste.
– Automated generation of food production data and analysis for easier management of the process overall.
Additionally, checkweighers and catchweighers are designed to be very easy to clean and made for use in wet areas. They are also generally certified to IP69, which means that food hygiene laws can be upheld at all times by the use of pressure and steam cleaning between uses.
Food production business owners also appreciate the long service life of these pieces of kit. Without bearings, toothed belts or rollers, there is no heavy wear, and the other system components are designed to be long-life and low maintenance. The two chains are driven by one motor, which maximises system availability and minimises servicing cost and time. If any issues do occur, users receive automated email notifications with an error diagnostic to pinpoint the cause and facilitate rapid repair.
Find out more
Bizerba is proud to supply some of the largest food production facilities across the globe. Contact us to find out more.
