New Inspection Capability and Improved Detection Enhances NextGuard X-ray Platform

To help meet an even broader range of food safety and quality requirements, Thermo Fisher Scientific has added inspection capabilities and enhanced detection to its NextGuard X-ray platform.

Launched in 2013 as an affordable foreign object detection system for a wide variety of food applications, the NextGuard system is now designed to also inspect packaged products for flaws such as missing pieces or components using new, easily customizable vision software.

“The new product verification option allows users to execute a wide range of size, position and count inspections without relying on the X-ray vendor to create new software for each application. We anticipate that this feature will reduce time/cost for the customer, enabling them to quickly and easily experiment with different inspection algorithms on their own,” said Bob Ries, lead product manager, metal detection and X-ray inspection, Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The NextGuard product verification software allows customers to use a pull down menu to quickly select and sequence a range of image processing and analysis algorithms. This enables a wide range of size, shape, angle, count and position-based inspections in minutes, rather than waiting weeks for custom software.

Also new to the NextGuard platform are several additional algorithms, which target the detection of less dense contaminants such as glass or rocks in complex, textured products such as nuts or tea bag boxes. Optional mass estimation software is designed to utilize the density information in the X-ray image to estimate weight and detect under/over filled products. The system is now configurable for dual rejection, separating contaminated products from other quality errors. This aids in root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions.

In addition to software improvements, the enhanced NextGuard also features hardware upgrades. The standard system processor is now six times faster than the first generation NextGuard, supporting high-speed contaminant detection and inspection as well as improved user responsiveness. An optional 0.4mm-pixel detector is also available that offers 3.2 times better resolution for improved metal detection in lightweight, homogeneous products such as powders or cheese.

The NextGuard system was originally developed as an affordable, simple-to-use, performance-oriented X-ray detection system. The goal was to reduce the total cost of ownership in order to provide X-ray detection for companies that could not previously afford the technology for their applications. Since its launch, more than 100 units have been delivered worldwide to a variety of food manufacturing facilities.

NextGuard’s performance-oriented features also have been driven by a changing industry landscape. These include evolving HACCP standards, increased use of metalized film packaging (which is problematic for metal detectors) and various wet or semi-frozen foods (cheese, ice cream, bakery products) that do not lend themselves to metal detection due to product affect issues.