{"id":32474,"date":"2020-03-31T10:14:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T08:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/?p=32474"},"modified":"2020-07-30T11:57:05","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T09:57:05","slug":"mettler-toledo-metal-detection-big-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/mettler-toledo-metalldetektion-big-bags\/","title":{"rendered":"Metal detection for big bags"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The French manufacturer So Bag supplies customised flexible bulk containers (FIBCs), known as big bags, primarily to the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The company checks all the packaging it produces for metal contamination using technology from Mettler-Toledo Product Inspection Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Big bags have long been standard packaging for the storage and transport of granulates and powders across all industries. Far less standard is what the Burgundy-based FIBC manufacturer <strong>So Bag<\/strong> scores points with its customers: the company, which was only founded in 2013, pays attention to this in the production of its big bags, <strong>Customers from cross-contamination with the bulk material<\/strong> to protect them. A concept that works: the company now produces more than 100,000 big bags every year, which are customised to the customer's application requirements.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>FIBC type C: Challenge product effect<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The big bags are made of woven tape fabric made of coated or uncoated polyethylene or polypropylene. These are materials that <strong>High electrical insulation capacity<\/strong> and an exact match between the FIBC type and the <strong>later deployment scenario<\/strong> to prevent electrostatic ignition hazards during filling and discharging.<\/p><div class=\"packa-in-post-alle\" style=\"text-align: center;\" id=\"packa-3287719564\"><div id=\"packa-2383626521\"><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/newsletter\/\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"PJ Self-promotion English 03\"><!--noptimize--><img src=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03.png\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03.png 840w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03-768x192.png 768w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03-18x5.png 18w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03-332x83.png 332w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03-664x166.png 664w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PJ-Eigenwerbung-English-03-688x172.png 688w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" width=\"840\" height=\"210\"  style=\" max-width: 100%; height: auto;\" \/><!--\/noptimize--><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p>So Bag produces FIBCs of types A to D in accordance with IEC 61340-4-4. Type C FIBCs are particularly demanding when it comes to detecting metallic foreign bodies. These FIBCs have a conductive structure that allows them to be filled and emptied in all potentially explosive atmospheres while being earthed. For this purpose <strong>Conductive carbon fabric<\/strong> incorporated into the FIBC.<\/p>\n<p>Conventional metal detectors therefore reach their limits when checking for foreign objects. The carbon fabric interferes with the electromagnetic field of the metal detector to such an extent that an inspection <strong>not or only with low detection accuracy<\/strong> would be possible. The devices are not able to suppress this so-called product effect and reliably detect metal contaminants under these difficult conditions.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32738\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32738\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32738\" title=\"Cutting and manual sewing operations harbour risks of metallic contamination of the big bags.\" src=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_2_Fertigung_neu.jpg\" alt=\"Cutting and manual sewing operations harbour risks of metallic contamination of the big bags.\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_2_Fertigung_neu.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_2_Fertigung_neu-600x375.jpg 600w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_2_Fertigung_neu-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_2_Fertigung_neu-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_2_Fertigung_neu-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32738\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cutting and manual sewing work harbour risks of metallic contamination of the big bags. (Image: So Bag)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Protection against cross-contamination<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Testing bulk goods for metallic foreign bodies using a free-fall metal detection system is a widely used method in industrial applications when filling FIBCs. The process promises downstream safety in the production line for the bulk material transported further in the FIBC - but only if <strong>Cross-contamination from the container to the bulk material is reliably excluded<\/strong> can be realised.<\/p>\n<p>However, both cutting and sewing operations harbour risks of metallic contamination of the big bags during production. Broken needle tips can get caught in the fabric of the FIBC and later cause cross-contamination with the bulk material. The same applies to small metal parts such as threading aids and thimbles, which are used by employees during manual processing of the big bags.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>MSF technology plus software in use<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>So Bag therefore decided in favour of a <strong>Profile Advantage metal detection system<\/strong> from Mettler-Toledo and uses it to check its big bags for metallic foreign bodies during the final product inspection.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32739\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32739\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32739\" title=\"Rainer Mundt, Head of Marketing at Mettler-Toledo Product Inspection Germany.\" src=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt.jpg\" alt=\"Rainer Mundt, Head of Marketing at Mettler-Toledo Product Inspection Germany.\" width=\"400\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt.jpg 1215w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt-600x596.jpg 600w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt-300x298.jpg 300w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt-1024x1016.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_Rainer_Mundt-768x762.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32739\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rainer Mundt, Head of Marketing at Mettler-Toledo Product Inspection Germany (Image: Mettler-Toledo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201eFor products with a product effect or conductive materials, other manufacturers are trying to enable metal detection of such products by adjusting the frequency,\u201c explains <strong>Rainer Mundt<\/strong>, Head of Marketing at Mettler-Toledo Product Inspection Germany. \u201eThis means that the number of <strong>\u201aFalse Positives\u2019<\/strong> can be reduced. However, this also reduces the overall detection performance and increases the risk of unrecognised metal contamination in the product. We take a different approach with our Profile Advantage solutions: to put it simply, we teach the system so that we can then analyse the product. <strong>\u201aFactoring out\u2018 the product effect\u2018<\/strong> to be able to. As a result, we recognise <strong>Up to 50 per cent smaller metal foreign bodies compared to other technology approaches<\/strong>.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These metal detection systems utilise the so-called <strong>MSF technology<\/strong> (Multi Simultaneous Frequency) and a special software algorithm that suppresses the product signal emitted by the FIBC. During the inspection, the metal detector uses<strong> Different, flexibly customisable operating frequencies<\/strong>. During setup, a test product is passed through the metal detection system several times beforehand in order to determine the properties of the product signal and transfer them to the software algorithm.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Combined <\/strong><strong>Final product inspection<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In its final product inspection, So Bag combines the Profile Advantage metal detector with a <strong>Stop-on-detect ejection mechanism<\/strong>. Thanks to the large opening of the metal detection system, the folded FIBCs can be fed to the metal detector quickly and easily via the conveyor belt.<\/p>\n<p>If the detector is triggered, the conveyor belt stops immediately and an employee removes the suspect FIBC. This is examined for metallic foreign bodies in the rework and checked again after any foreign bodies have been removed.<\/p>\n<p>The 100 per cent inspection of each individual product is a key component of the company's internal quality management and its quality promise to its customers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32736\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32736\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32736\" title=\"Thanks to the evaluation of performance data and key figures collected by the metal detector, production output and product quality can be further improved.\" src=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung.jpg\" alt=\"Thanks to the evaluation of performance data and key figures collected by the metal detector, production output and product quality can be further improved.\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung.jpg 1216w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/QS_MT_3_Auswertung-768x767.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32736\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thanks to the evaluation of performance data and key figures collected by the metal detector, production output and product quality can be further improved. (Image: So Bag)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Preventive quality assurance<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the reliability and precision of the metal detector, condition monitoring functions were also important in the investment decision. The Profile Advantage metal detection system continuously analyses the <strong>System performance<\/strong> and sounds the alarm if problems such as an accumulation of foreign body findings occur or the performance level falls below a certain value. So Bag can thus reduce the number of daily performance tests, which leads to the <strong>Increase in system availability<\/strong> contributes.<\/p>\n<p>Production managers also analyse performance data and relevant key figures collected by the metal detection system at regular intervals. This provides them with important insights into the production process and indications of how the <strong>Production output and product quality further improved<\/strong> can be analysed. The type and frequency of errors that occur, for example, allow conclusions to be drawn about weak points or particularly critical points in production.<\/p>\n<p>Further information:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mt.com\/de\/de\/home.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/www.mt.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sobagfrance.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/www.sobagfrance.com<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To protect customers from cross-contamination from the big bags on the bulk goods, the French manufacturer So Bag checks all FIBCs produced for metal contamination using a Mettler-Toledo Profile Advantage metal detector.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_title":"","csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[28,21],"tags":[45,38,58298,32,40,56,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-32474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-aus-dem-magazin","8":"category-verpackungstechnik","9":"tag-ibc-und-big-bags","10":"tag-lebensmittel","11":"tag-mettler-toledo","12":"tag-packmittel-und-packstoffe","13":"tag-pharma-kosmetik-chemie","14":"tag-qualitaetssicherung","15":"tag-verpackungstechnik","16":"cs-entry","17":"cs-video-wrap"},"acf":[],"vimeo_video":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}