Are You Detectable? We Are!
Metal detectable plastic products are made from various non-metallic materials (materials that offer the best capabilities for food applications that cannot always use a metal alternative), most of our plastic products are made with a proportion of a metallic magnetic trace element which is present throughout the whole product, this is at a size and concentration that allows a homogeneous flow throughout, ensuring that all parts are potentially detectable. Other products have a metallic strips, clops or other, etc bound or adhered to the product. These products are not detectable throughout. Many of the products are entirely detectable – but there is a cut off point to their detectability. This will not be systematic for all customers and indeed for all machines, production lines, locations and sites.
 
There is no 100% guarantee of zero risk with any detectable products… Even with metal. Something to consider… Why are small pieces of metal able to get into and sometimes through production or processing lines?
 
Unfortunately there will always be a limit as to at what point the metal detectable materials will stop being detected! This point will generally be reached when the metal content in the object is smaller than the settings you are using. At this point any metal foreign object will pass through your system. Remember, metal detection systems are a safeguard to a point.
 
Metal Detection is Not an Exact or Precise Science.
All metal detectable machines may be very accurate, hi-tech and highly specialized instruments but there are many variable's to consider:
• Type of food or product within the process (meat, breads, frozen, wet, dry, etc)
• Packaging type
• Speed and orientation of the detectable product
• Metal detector settings and calibration
• Sensitivity and age of machine
• Size of aperture... To name the most common ones!
 
Contrary to the rule, many of our products will be detected, in general, better within a wet environment rather than dry – but will achieve good results to implement into HACCP for all areas.
 
Ask Yourself Some or All of These Questions…
What do you have the metal detector set at? Which areas have you tested in:
WET or DRY? Ferrous? Non-Ferrous? Stainless Steel? Aluminum? What was the smallest piece being detected?

Lost or Found?
Ask yourself this important question: By what percentage am I now safeguarding my customers?

Here is a simple example: If you have a non-metal detectable pen you have 100% chance of facing an issue caused by the potential of a LOST pen. If you have a Metal Detectable Pen, which can be detected to a single piece as small as 5mm then you have a 95% chance that the lost pen will be FOUND.

Remember that our products shows that you are using all due diligence, and you have taken the best precautions available to guarantee your product is contaminant free.
 
We strongly advise that you always carry out testing on all the products.

Material Specification
Many people think of magnetism as a property of metal, particularly iron, since common household magnets are made from iron. Electrical currents are actually the force behind magnetic fields, which form as electrical charges move around the metal. On a larger scale, like an electromagnet, the magnetic field is created by passing an electric current through wires. In the case of a household magnet, the magnetic field is created by the movement of electrons in their electronic orbits around the magnetic itself.

] An electromagnet works on the principle that an electric current not only allows electrons to flow in a circuit, but also generates a small magnetic field. When a wire carrying electricity is coiled, the magnetic field becomes even stronger. Iron or steel objects surrounded by this coiled electric wire also become magnetized. This combination of electronic energy, coiled wiring and the conductive metal object forms the basis of an electromagnet. It is with these basic scientific principles of combining electricity and magnetism together, which allows the conception and design of metal detections machines and the technology and development behind metal detectable products.

Technical Information
Every food processing facility that uses metal detectors to eliminate foreign objects contamination, must calibrate their detectors to the food they are processing and then set to a threshold. The threshold is determined by the company in regards to the size of contaminant they want the detector to reject. The type of product passing under the detector (dry or wet), it’s size, speed of the line and orientation also have an effect. These companies must maintain the calibration of these units by passing a known size of Ferrous,Stainless Steel or Non Ferrous test sticks or spheres under the unit to make sure they are calibrated correctly. All manufacturers of metal detector heads have these testing products available for companies to use to maintain the correct calibration of these metal detectors. It is critical for the processor to continually check calibration as the same product can possibly give off a different signal due primarily to moisture content of the product. (As a block of Ice Cream melts it needs to be re-calibrated due to the increase in moisture content). Without continuous calibration the metal detectors can allow larger pieces of foreign contamination to get through compared to their threshold settings.

Most metal detector manufacturers use different frequencies so there is not a specific standard in regards to the frequency setting across the board. One thing they all agree on is that the opening of the aperture is critical to the size of the piece of material you are trying to pick up. This is the height and width of the opening you are using to pass the product underneath to search for foreign objects. The height of the head from the line is the most critical variable as sensitivity decreases as height increases. The smaller the piece you desire to pick up the closer to the line the head needs to be. Most agree that 300KHz is common for dry foods and 25 KHz for wet foods.

Using this information we can provide the following estimate of the size piece of our typical product you can pick up at 25 KHz and 300KHz. As you can see the critical variable is the height from the line in regards to the size of the piece. These heights are also what manufactures of metal detection would recommend given a customer calls and requests that they want to pick up this size of piece of foreign objects as again the height of the head above the line is the critical variable in regards to picking up certain sizes of foreign objects contamination. As previously mentioned there are other variables being the speed of the line and the orientation of the foreign object when it passes underneath the head. It is also beneficial for the user to be able to provide some input in regards to what type of contaminants might cause an occurrence. This is needed by the manufacturers of these products to typically determine the setting Fe, Stainless or Non Ferrous they should set the equipment at.

Let us know if you need any other information about our products as we can be contacted at 866-324-8661.

Dry 300KHz			Wet 25KHz
Setting	Size of Piece	Height	Setting	Size of Piece	Height
1.5 mm Fe	3 mm	5 in	3.5 mm Fe	4 mm	8 in
1.2 mm Fe	2 mm	4 in	2.5 mm Fe	3 mm	6 in
0.8 mm Fe	1 mm	3 in	1.8 mm Fe	2 mm	5 in

You may Click Here for additional techincial information on Metal detection (MD_Basics.pdf