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Sun-Pac Manufacturing, a contract manufacturer of vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements, is known for producing premium quality products in a timely manner. Catering to customers that need small- to medium-size production runs, the company is agile and their production lines are versatile. Last year, Sun-Pac needed a new metal detector, and they needed it quickly. They turned to METTLER TOLEDO Safeline and within 24 hours, had a customized PowerPhasePRO installed and operating.
“We had a metal detector inspecting product prior to packaging, and we wanted to add a new one to inspect finished product. We spoke with several suppliers and were most impressed with METTLER Toledo Safeline,” said Gary Henderson, President and CEO of Sun-Pac. “Then one day, we got a new job and needed to accommodate the customer. We contacted Safeline, and within 24 hours, we had the perfect metal detector up and running. It was an amazing experience.”
Sun-Pac operates 11 manufacturing lines and eight packaging lines, producing packaged products from 120 cc to 4 lb in size. They wanted a mobile metal detector that could be moved easily from one line to another and inspect any of their wide range of products. It had to be a stainless steel unit and a conveyorized system.
Geri Foley, Metal Detection Sales Manager at METTLER TOLEDO Safeline, explained, “Theresa Henderson from Sun-Pac came to our office at 3 pm and told us what they needed and how important the project was to their organization. It was an unusual application, but we had something in stock that could be modified to meet their needs. By 7 pm, we had stripped the stock unit down, customized it and reassembled it. We loaded it on a truck that night for delivery. The system was installed and operating at Sun-Pac the next morning.”
“It’s not feasible for us to have eight metal detectors, each dedicated to one packaging line. We wanted one metal detector that was versatile enough to handle all our products, and that’s what we got with the PowerPhasePRO,” said Theresa Henderson, Managing Director. “When we reached out to Mettler-Toledo Safeline, we expected to get great technology and great service because that’s what they’re known for. In reality, our experience far exceeded our expectations.”
To consistently maintain the highest detection sensitivity across Sun-Pac’s range of products, their PowerPhasePRO metal detector operates with two frequencies and automatically accommodates product variations. The high frequency coil technology and advanced head geometry detects all types of metal contamination from common ferrous and non-ferrous tramp metal to the most difficult to detect stainless steel fragments. To maximize sensitivity while virtually eliminating false rejects, a “Faraday Screen” filters out signals from two-way radios and variable frequency drives that can cause interference.
“The PowerPhasePRO is extremely easy to set up and operate,” noted Ellen Cummings, Plant Manager. “When we get a new product, the detector’s auto-learn function makes that initial set-up easy. After the detector learns the product, the parameters are stored in memory. During product changeovers, the operator simply chooses the next product code from the metal detector’s touchscreen control panel and it’s ready to go.”
“Ultimately, we measure the success of the metal detector on its effectiveness in detecting metal because providing customers with the highest level of quality is the most important thing to us,” said Gary Henderson. “From a production perspective, we also care about uptime, flexibility, sanitation and ease of use. The Safeline metal detector has impressed us in every way. And of course, the customer service we received was out of this world.”
