Three dedicated areas on the Ishida Europe stand at this year’s All4Pack exhibition in Paris will underline the company’s unique capabilities in the design, manufacture and installation of weighing, packing and quality control solutions that maximise line speeds and efficiencies while delivering consistently accurate and well-presented packs.
The three areas highlight Ishida’s expertise in developing complete and fully-integrated line solutions; the huge diversity of its weighing equipment to meet the particular requirements of many different products and applications; and its variety of inspection technologies that enable food manufacturers to meet the highest quality and safety standards.
In addition, showcased on various models throughout the stand will be Ishida’s unique Sentinel™ remote monitoring software to enhance machine performance and efficiency.
In the Solutions area, the Ishida salad packing line will demonstrate an integrated line that meets growing demand for pre-packed fresh salads, sometimes also including a protein ingredient. It features the market-leading 14 head RV salad weigher, specially-developed carousel filler and QX-775 FLEX tray sealer. For effective quality control, the line also incorporates Ishida’s unique AirScan leak detector.
Ishida top-of-the range salad weigher offers a number of market-leading features that deliver the highest levels of speed and accuracy to handle even the most difficult to handle salad leaves. Advanced software, improved digital filtering, refined anti-floor vibration, faster processing speeds, precise feeder control and enhanced average weight control all result in a market leading performance to increase packed product yields. A robust construction ensures long-term reliability and an easily accessible design provides ease of cleaning.
Capable of sealing MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging) trays at up to 15 cycles per minute, Ishida’s QX-775-FLEX traysealer offers a compact design, maximum hygiene and high-quality pack and product presentation.
The Ishida AirScan minimises spoilage in a wide variety of pre-packed retail food products where CO2 is used as part of the MAP process. It uses advanced laser technology to identify leaks of CO2 from holes as small as 0.25mm in sealed MAP packs at speeds of up to 180 packs per minute, ensuring that maximum quality can be achieved without compromising on high throughput speeds.
The diversity of weighing solutions offered by Ishida is emphasised by the two models on display in the Weighing Solutions area. The 6-head linear “Fresh Food Weigher” is ideal for fresh, sticky or fragile foods such as fresh protein, sliced or bruise-sensitive fruit, ready meals and biscuits. The weigher can reduce labour costs by around three operators per shift, with speeds of up 60 packs per minute (for the 12 head model) and giveaway of less than 1% of pack weight, all of which deliver a typical payback of less than one year.
The Ishida Micro multihead weigher has been designed to handle high-value, ultra-low target weight applications from 0.5 to 40g, with outstanding accuracy to within 0.01g at speeds of up to 100 packs per minute. This makes the Micro ideal for products such as spices and herbs, loose tea, soup ingredients, seeds, dehydrated vegetables, and tablets and capsules. An ultra-small footprint of only 650 x 650mm, and maximum height of only 970mm, mean the weigher can fit into any factory, saving valuable floor space.
Alongside the AirScan in the Inspection Solutions area will be two models from Ishida’s advanced X-ray range. The Ishida IX-G2 Poultry Solution uses special dual-energy technology to detect wish, rib and fan bones and provide a fully integrated solution for the handling, inspection and rejection of unpacked chicken fillets. Rejected products are transported via an integral reject return conveyor back to operators for rework on the infeed to the system. The IX-G2 is available in both single and dual lane variants with throughputs of up to 220 fillets per minute.
The Ishida IX-GN X-ray provides excellent sensitivity in the detection of a wide variety of foreign bodies in both packed and bulk food, with the ability to find even the tiniest amounts of steel, aluminium, tin, glass, stone, hard rubber, plastic, bones and shells at high inspection speeds. The unique Ishida Genetic Algorithm (GA) technology enables the machine to be trained to more easily detect specific contaminants and the system can also undertake a variety of other quality control functions such as spotting deformed or missing product and weight estimation.
The DACS-GN-SE checkweigher has been developed as a high-value economy machine that combines exceptional speed and accuracy at an affordable price. An intuitive, menu-based display ensures ease of use and fast set-up, and an open frame design provides easy cleaning. It can be specified with Retail Reject Confirmation software to help food manufacturers meet the latest retail codes of practice. The DACS-GN-SE is also available with the Ishida Data Capture System, a powerful software that captures the data from every pack that passes across the checkweigher to deliver real-time displays and reports which help companies identify cost-saving opportunities and maximise OEE.
All Ishida equipment can be specified with the company’s unique remote customer care software solution, Sentinel™, which combines machine performance monitoring with comprehensive data capture and in-depth analysis. This enables manufacturers and packers to operate their lines to maximum performance and efficiency and avoid unnecessary and unwanted downtime.
Ishida Sentinel™ software connects compatible Ishida machines, anywhere in the world, to a central system manned by Ishida engineers. This provides complete monitoring of machines, however widely distributed, with Ishida experts on hand to identify and rectify any faults or poor performance.