It can be difficult to adhere to HACCP principles without the right equipment. Fortunately, adding magnetic separators to your conveying system can help you keep your food processing production line up to par and ensure you’re meeting necessary food safety standards.
How to Choose the Right Magnetic Separator for Your Application
Selecting the right magnetic separator for your conveyor belt application depends on several factors. We supply two types of Magnattack® magnetic separators for conveyor belt applications: The RE80® Separation Shaft and the Bullnose Plate Magnet.
These magnets can be installed to remove magnetic stone, wear iron, dicing blades (which break when slicing fruit such as pineapple), and metal slivers. The products typically processed in these applications include leafy, diced, and whole vegetables, potato chips, chunky meat pieces, potatoes, fruit, and coffee beans.
Let’s have a look at the factors to consider when selecting one of these magnets, and how they can help you increase your metal fragment controls.
Characteristics – Product Type, Size & Depth
Choosing which magnet to install on a conveyor belt, or directly after, will depend on certain product characteristics.
The RE80® Separation Shaft, or Roller Bar Magnet, is typically installed on shallow product conveyor lines to split the flow of product and pick up metal contamination. You must ensure the product doesn’t exceed the range of the magnet. This may require a scraper to adequately grade the product.
A Bullnose Plate Magnet is usually installed in more deep, dense, and chunky product applications, where extra product-to-magnet contact is required.
A huge advantage of a Bullnose Plate Magnet is that it includes both deep-field and shallow-field protection. The rounded end of the Bullnose Plate Magnet is the 10,000 gauss high-intensity section. This is a dual stage magnet, which means you have deep-field protection as well as (shallow) high-intensity surface strength at the end of the magnet. Weakly magnetic fragments most likely migrate down the magnet with the product flow and can then be safely retained around the end in the safe retention zone.
The Bullnose Plate Magnets can be supplied as flat or dimple. The dimpled surface creates turbulence to enhance separation. It also prevents unwanted leafy matter adhering to the magnet – e.g. sliced potato or leaves can stick to a flat magnet, so the dimple design can help prevent this from happening.
Process Characteristics – Product Contact Area
When it comes to selecting the right type of magnetic separator for your industry a conveyor belt application, there is another important consideration: the product contact area. , ask yourself:
This is an important factor to consider when selecting a magnet. It is crucial to determine if the product needs a larger product contact area so that metal fragments don’t escape the effective range or zone of the magnet.
There are 3 aspects when considering the product contact area:
· Speed and Trajectory
· Spasmodic flow – inconsistent flow/feed
· When running multiple types of products, you may need a larger area to cater for different flow characteristics.
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Selecting the Right Magnetic Conveyor Belt System
Once you’ve considered your unique application requirements, it’s time to align them with a magnetic separator that meets your needs. Let’s have a further look into the RE80® Separation Shaft and the Bullnose Plate Magnet.
RE80® Separation Shaft
This magnetic separator is designed to split the flow of the product and maximize product-to-magnet contact. This magnet effectively extracts splinters of stainless steel, magnetic stone fragments, and >98% of tramp iron and ferrous fines.
The Separation Shafts include ultra-high energy RE80® magnet elements, offering +11,000 gauss strength. The larger diameter bar sizes increase separation efficiency when compared to conventional bar magnets, and are available in 35mm, 51mm, and 63mm diameters.
These units also include versatile mounting pins for cradle-mounts, as well as versatile mounting internal threads on each end for mounting/support brackets.
The Magnattack® Separation Shafts are easy to clean, do not cause bridging, and are seal welded and vacuum encapsulated for extended magnet strength life. An optional feature for inspections and cleaning: magnets can be rotated 180° to view collected contaminants when mounted on a bearing or swing-away frame.
Bullnose Plate Magnet
The Magnattack® RE80® Bullnose Plate Magnet features a High-Intensity 11,000+ Gauss RE80® Separation Bar at the end of a standard plate magnet. The Separation Bar Magnet offers protection against dislodged fragments and prevents them from re-contaminating the food product. When metal fragments are collected by the Separation Bar, they are washed safely to the underside of the magnet and out of the path of oncoming products.
With the deep field capability of the Plate Magnet added to the intensive coercive force of the Separation Bar, you gain far superior control over foreign metal pieces and increased protection against contamination than you would with a standard plate magnet.
Benefits of High-Intensity RE80® Magnetic Separator
Our RE80® magnetic separator is a powerful, efficient tool that removes ferrous contaminants from products. Designed for conveyor belt applications, the RE80® Separation Shaft and the Bullnose Plate Magnet are both excellent choices for metal fragment control of a range of products.
Contact us today to learn more about adding the RE80® Separation Shaft or Bullnose Plate Magnet to a new or existing conveyor system.
