Product Effect in Metal Detection
This webinar details how to overcome product effect to detect more metal in challenging applications
Product effect is the term used to describe instances where signals generated by the characteristics of a product are interpreted by a metal detector as a potential contaminant.
Overcoming product effect can be a challenge when inspecting wet/conductive products such as those in the meat, poultry, seafood or dairy industry segments. It can also be a problem in applications where the product is chilled, cooling or frozen or when products are packaged in metallized film.
Removing the influence of product effect is essential to allow the smallest metal contaminants to be identified and removed from your production line. This in turn protects your brand and the welfare of consumers while increasing profit margins.
This webinar provides an overview of metal detection technology and answers frequently asked questions including:
- Which factors contribute to product effect?
- Why it is important to overcome product effect?
- How can I to reduce false reject rates?
- How can I reduce the risks of a product recall?
- How can I combat product effect without compromising on detection sensitivity?
- What technology should I utilize for optimum performance?
Metals are not the only materials that have the ability to conduct electricity and generate magnetic fields. There are many naturally high product effect (wet) applications with high moisture or salt content, i.e. fresh meat, chicken, fish and bread. These products are likely to produce a signal in the metal detector in the same way as small metal contaminants would. This makes it difficult for the detector to distinguish between the product and the metal contaminant.
The factors that influence the inspection of wet or high product effect products are:
- Moisture content in the product
- Temperature of the product
- Size and shape of the product
- Position and orientation of the product through the detector
- Consistency or density of the product
- Packaging material
- Frequency at which the product is inspected
Traditional metal detectors trade-off between the product effect, the maximum operating frequency and metal detector sensitivity. The higher the product effect (the wetter the product), the lower the optimal frequency and the lower the sensitivity of the detector. Conversely, the lower the product effect (the drier the product) is, the higher the operating frequency and detection sensitivity are. Dry products with low product effect have very little impact on the metal detector at high frequencies, so the detector can easily detect very small metal contaminants at these frequencies.
Despite the challenges of product effect, the most sensitive metal detectors on the market operate at more than one frequency simultaneously and are known as Multi-Simultaneous Frequency (MSF) detectors. They address the problem of product effect in an innovative way.
Metal detectors use MSF in combinations of high and low frequencies, simultaneously. Built-in product signal suppression technology, two-stage discrimination for frequency and phase, cancels the information from these frequency combinations to remove the product signal. This allows for much smaller metal contaminants to be detected. The improvement in detector performance - from the traditional single-frequency metal detectors to the MSF detector can be as much as 50% in product effect or metalized film applications.
In addition to this webinar, you can download our white paper on 'Understanding Challenging Applications' for optimum food safety and quality.
