"Product safety is the focal point of our work", explains Herbert Knapmeyer, Head of electrical engineering and automation in the Walter Rau production facilities. "To us, the consistent development of our quality management system has always been a matter of course", continues Mr. Knapmeyer. The company Walter Rau complies with the process-oriented standard "DIN EN ISO 9001:2000" and successfully applies a HACCP concept.
The Walter Rau production plant in Hilter, Germany, has first been audited as per IFS (International Food Standard) in since February, 2004, by the Fresenius Institute. The production plant achieved a top result: the highest IFS level right from the beginning and has consistently been able to maintain this ever since.
Since the end of the seventies this quality-oriented company trusts in the innovative technical solutions from GARVENS and SAFELINE, both members of the METTLER TOLEDO PI Division. A check weigher of the type S3 from Mettler-Toledo Garvens checks the product weight in the production line of the margarine classic "Deli Reform". This line is a four-lane production line with one of the lanes passing the S3 check weigher. The continuously captured weight data allows the check weigher feedback control to automatically correct the filling behaviour of upstream fillers and thus to optimise the margarine portions.
Automatic feedback control is one of the software options that are available with this model and many other Garvens checkweighers;
Another GARVENS S3 check weigher is used for Walter Rau's cooking fats and oils for large-scale consumers and industrial use. For example, the solid fat rods are checked at a conveyor speed of 20 meters per minute, the check weigher weighing up to 40 rods in a minute.
All Garvens checkweighers in the Walter Rau plant are connected with the statistical quality control system FreeWeigh.Net which provides evidence of the fill quantities. This quality control system provides a multitude of reports for evaluating the production data. The stored article (product setup) details and the evaluation of production batches are a proof of the course of production which can be precisely traced back. Graphics enhance the reports so that production analyses even over long periods of time are facilitated. Beside the check weighers, the FreeWeigh.Net can also monitor the metal detectors used in the production lines.
In another section of the "Deli Reform" margarine production line the margarine packs are conveyed in a single lane through a metal detector from Mettler-Toledo Safeline. The SAFELINE detector model Signature can be integrated in a range of standard or bespoke conveyor systems and excels in maximum detection sensitivity due to its modern multi-frequency technology. Even smallest metal particles can be reliably detected.
The two METTLER TOLEDO companies GARVENS – the world leading check weigher manufacturer – and SAFELINE – the renowned producer of metal detectors and X-ray in¬spec¬tion systems ¬– are now united under the METTLER TOLEDO "roof": in the PI Division METTLER TOLEDO offers the whole range of modern product inspection equipment, bundling the expertise.
Thus METTLER TOLEDO is the worldwide leading supplier of in-line check weighers, metal detectors and X-ray inspection systems.
