X-ray

Product inspection has become an indispensable element of responsible food production, an inherent part of any HACCP concept, and an absolute prerequisite of successful IFS certification.

Contaminations with glass, ceramics, stones, and similar materials also constitute a serious problem. X-ray detection systems for food are therefore used for such applications.

The X-rays for “radiographing” are generated by an electric X-ray tube.  A line-shaped detector that measures the arriving radiation is positioned above the conveyor belt. X-rays have a very high energy and are thus able to penetrate solid bodies. The detector converts the remaining radiation into an electrical signal, and differences in the density of the inspected object can thus be represented in an image. The higher the density of a material, the darker its representation on the X-ray image, and vice versa. The image processing software detects the contrast differences in the image, highlights the contaminants or the missing products, and outputs a corresponding signal.

Basically X-ray systems can detect any contaminants whose density essentially differs from the density of the product to be inspected. Usually this applies to metals such as steel and stainless steel, but also to glass, sandstone, quartz, shale, and many others.