How to Optimize Your X-ray Inspection?

There are a few easy steps that can have a tremendous effect on the performance of the inspection system, that every food producer should take into account. And who doesn’t want to ensure the best system performance and operation?

In this blog, we will guide you through three of the most crucial steps that help you to optimize the performance of your X-ray system.

Keep reading!

Start with The Basics

Optimizing the X-ray system’s performance starts with the basics. First, you’ll want to ensure that the power supply for the inspection system is clean and steady. Any spikes or fluctuations in the power can cause serious damage to the X-ray system and its parts – just like with any other high-tech equipment. This doesn’t only protect the system and its parts but also enables it to perform better.

Secondly, it is important to pay attention to the manner in which the products arrive and go through the system. Disorderly presentation of the products and non-consistent product flow may affect the detection rates as even the good-quality products have a lot of variations in them in the eyes of the X-ray inspection system. This can be easily corrected with product guides leading up to and within the system.

Third, a very important key point is the comprehensive training of operator staff. While it contributes to the overall user-safety, it also can increase the efficiency of the X-ray inspection unit. We at Mekitec always provide user training together with system installations, as well as radiation training.

Be Proactive Rather Than Reactive

The next step in optimizing the X-ray performance is to plan ahead. It’s not a bad idea to prepare even for the worst-case scenarios. This means taking proactive measures, such as annual servicing and maintenance of the systems, to make sure everything runs smoothly at all times. As with any other production equipment, proper maintenance of the X-ray system elongates the system’s life-time expectancy and improves reliability.

To mitigate risks for system down-time, we recommend keeping the most needed spare parts, such as air filters, conveyor belts, and protective curtains always available in your stock. We offer three different types of spare part kits that food producers can include in their stock at an affordable price. These enable quick action if any malfunction should happen, and your production line will be up and running again in no time!

And during January 2021, our existing customers have still time to take advantage of our special service campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to anticipate and address future maintenance needs by refurbishing older MEKI & MIDMEKI systems to be as good as new with a suitable schedule to avoid unnecessary halts in the production.

Pay Attention to These!

In addition to the abovementioned key points, there are still a few things on how to optimize your X-ray system’s performance even further. You’ll want to pay attention to the location of the inspection system and the X-ray beam orientation.

The location of the inspection system can have a tremendous effect on how well it can pick up hazardous foreign bodies from food production. For example, inspecting large secondary packaging often proves to be challenging as there are a lot of density variations within the package. Therefore, the most efficient place for the Critical Control Point is in the primary packaging stage of the production.

You can read more about the pros and cons of bulk, primary, and secondary packaging inspection here.

Also, selecting the right X-ray beam orientation for your products is crucial. A good rule of thumb is that if your product is taller than wider, it should be X-ray imaged from the side to get a comprehensive view of the product. For products that are wide and low in height, the inspection should be done with X-ray systems where the beam comes from the above.