Nestlé East London installs double lane checkweigher

March 2004 Maintenance, Test & Measurement, Calibration

The competition in the food industry has increased in recent times, given the global economy and stringent legal requirements placed on manufacturers, so any possible advantage is welcomed. And that is exactly how Nestlé view their latest investment in their East London pet products plant: as a definite advantage over competitors.

Nestlé Pet Products (Cape) project manager, Abdullah Amien, said that the company needed a checkweigher to verify the weight contents of their dog packs and decided on a Boekels double lane checkweigher after consulting with their UK office. "The UK plant purchased six Boekels checkweighers and have been very impressed with their performance, so we decided to try one ourselves," Amien said.

The checkweigher is used to identify under or overweight packs of pet food and operates on a high-speed, twin lane, handling 100 packs per minute per lane. The checkweigher has an accuracy of 0,1 g. The high-speed pneumatic system rejects any incorrectly filled packs by blowing them off the line. "This ensures that Nestlé will deliver products to the consumer that fulfil the required packing weights - a legal requirement of trade and metrology - and that no underweight product is put into the market," Amien said.

The Boekels products have been supplied locally by Carl Zeiss for the last four years and sales have been growing. Carl Zeiss product manager Natalie Sansom said the checkweigher has a high-end throughput of 200 pieces per lane per minute, with adjustable belt speeds. "The Boekels products are among the best around the world, deploying mechanical force compensation weighing systems that are built by craftsmen and engineered to exacting standards," Sansom said.

Manufactured in Germany, the user is able to get statistical information from the checkweigher relevant to their production requirements. The product also has a trend controller, which sends signals to the filler to automatically adjust the filling heads so as to increase or decrease the amounts according to the weight trends of the packed products.

"These products use the very best quality components and high precision weighing cells to deliver very accurate results, which is proven again and again in factory conditions," Sansom said.

For more information contact Natalie Sansom, Carl Zeiss, 011 886 9510 or [email protected], www.zeiss.co.za

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