Importance of Magnetic Separators in Food Processing

Food processing industry requires great attention to be paid at every step. In this arena, removal of impurities like metal contaminants has become a common practice now-a-days. And to bring perfection in every product, a number of equipment and devices have been invented. With the help of these devices retailers conduct different test prior to delivery of their products. In addition to other tests, metal detection is a critical control point requirement that ensure finished products meet the established specification. Metal pieces in food products can cause a major safety risk that may lead to serious health issues. This is due to the reason even a minute metal piece can damage processing equipment. General sources of metal equipments include: Raw material or incoming ingredients that gets contaminated during transportation Processing equipments which can cause this problem during different processes like crushing, grinding, abrasion, or vibration that may cause loss of nuts and bolts Environmental causes Inadequate personal practice Carelessness during work In food processing, this carelessness can’t be avoided as it may cause many health problems to the customers. For metal detection, magnets are being used. This is most reliable and perfect solution of this problem. Magnetic separators are what, made exactly to resolve this problem. These are the equipments used to take apart ferrous impurities. These separators are of wide usage in all other industries like mining, metal processing etc. But, selecting the right magnetic separator is also a matter of responsibility. It requires the person to have complete understanding of magnetic properties, product characteristics, and particular environmental factors of every food processing plant. Just like the bucket elevators, these separators have been made available in different sizes, shapes, and designs. These types include grate, bar, plate, suspended, pneumatic line, liquid line trap, and many others. Let’s discuss them in detail: Grate This particular type of magnet has magnetic tubes designed in a grid to permit the flow of material to cascade through grate. They increase magnetic protection by the means of cross sectioned parts of the equipment like pipes and hoppers. The main function of these grate magnet is that these are used to remove fine and large pieces of metals. Bar Ferrous impurities and materials present in relatively small, shallow quantities of flowing powder, fibers, liquids, and granules are removed by these non electric bar magnets. Plate These plate magnets are most common in use and placed particularly in the bottom of an inclined chute or may suspended above Belt Conveyors. They are basically used to remove ferrous contaminants that occur sometimes in product lines, mostly large pieces of metals like nuts, bolts etc. Suspended This kind of magnet is hanged above conveyor belts and removes metal fragments from the material as they passed under it. Pneumatic Pneumatic magnets draw metal pieces from the product such as milk powder, flour etc. by passing them through pneumatic lines. Liquid Line Trap These are used to collect magnets like baling wire or staples. These magnets are designed with an inlet port to match existing pipelines. So, use these magnets and bring perfection in your job.