From bread to biscuits, from loose baked goods to multipacks: metal detectors and X-ray systems bring quality control directly into bakery lines. With inspection apertures of up to 1,200 mm, the Techik solutions supplied by Libra can also handle wide lines, multiple products and large packs.
Safety and quality control in the bakery industry
The bakery sector covers a wide range of products and processes: bread and leavened products, biscuits, wafers, baked snacks, filled products and multipacks all require inspection solutions that can adapt to the characteristics of the product and the configuration of the line.
Inspection is not just about metal contaminants. Depending on the technology used, it is possible to check for foreign bodies, product integrity, defects, correct filling, piece count and the presence of components inside the pack.
This is why Libra Service offers quality control solutions for the bakery sector based on Techik metal detector and X-ray technologies, selecting the configuration, size and reject system to suit the product and the line.
Metal detectors in bakery: a simple, effective solution
The metal detector remains a well-established technology for detecting metal contaminants and can be integrated at various points in the production process.
Choosing the aperture is particularly important: product size, belt width, number of lanes and layout on the line determine the most suitable configuration.
In bakery, however, some products can present conditions that make inspection more complex. It is always worth considering the influence of temperature, salt content and the orientation of very thin metal contaminants, as well as the intrinsic limitation of the technology: a metal detector detects metal contaminants, but not non-metallic contaminants such as glass or stones.
And this is where, for certain applications, X-ray inspection comes into play.
X-ray for bakery: more than just contaminant detection
An X-ray inspection system extends inspection beyond metal alone, identifying radiographically detectable foreign bodies such as metal, glass and stones and, in certain applications and conditions, other materials and defects.
But the main advantage of X-ray in bakery is the ability to use the X-ray image to perform several checks at the same time.
Depending on the application, the Techik systems supplied by Libra can be configured to check:
- presence of contaminants;
- product integrity and defects;
- correct fill or presence of filling;
- weight and quantity;
- correct piece count;
- presence of the expected components in the pack;
- packaging integrity and characteristics.
The real advantage in bakery: X-ray up to 1,200 mm wide
Bakery lines often have one particular characteristic: they are wide.
Biscuits, croissants, bread products and other baked goods may travel in multiple lanes or occupy much wider belts than conventional single-lane packaging lines. Adding a quality control system without narrowing the production flow therefore becomes a key requirement.
This is exactly where the Techik range offers a particularly interesting feature: the availability of X-ray tunnels with inspection widths of 400, 500, 600 and 800 mm, up to 1,200 mm, as well as more compact 180 and 240 mm configurations. Depending on the configuration, available inspection heights go up to 400 mm.
This makes it possible to design inspection around the line, rather than having to adapt the line to the inspection machine.
For large bakery applications, configurations such as 600 × 300 mm and 800 × 400 mm are available, also designed for products packed in cartons, products arranged in multiple layers and high-throughput applications.
The ability to work with such wide apertures makes X-ray particularly attractive for multi-lane bakery lines, loose products spread across the full width of the belt, and large packs.
Multi-lane inspection and selective rejection
A wide belt does not necessarily mean rejecting everything that passes through the inspection zone at the same time.
For high-throughput lines, Libra solutions include dual-lane, multi-lane and multi-channel configurations, combined with dedicated reject systems. The aim is to make inspection more efficient and rejection more precise, limiting the amount of compliant product removed together with non-compliant product.
This is particularly important in bakery, where a line can carry numerous products side by side at the same time.
Inspecting light, delicate products without damaging them
Croissants, bread rolls, muffins and other bakery products can also be light, soft or easily damaged.
For these applications, Techik also offers curtain-free X-ray configurations, developed to avoid the problems that traditional protective curtains can cause when very light products pass through: tipping over, jams, scratches or damage.
Quality control can therefore be integrated while maintaining a smoother flow and preserving product integrity.
From loose product to final pack
One of the advantages of a well-designed quality control project is the ability to choose where inspection takes place.
We can distinguish between raw material inspection, in-process inspection and inspection of the packaged product. In bakery, different systems can therefore be considered for ingredients, doughs and semi-finished products, loose biscuits and baked goods, or finished packs.
There is therefore no universally best X-ray or metal detector configuration: the product, the contaminant to be detected, packaging, line width, speed, product layout and installation point determine the most suitable technology.
Techik solutions from Libra Service: quality control built around the line
Libra Service integrates Techik metal detectors and X-ray systems into bakery lines, starting from an analysis of the real application.
The availability of metal detectors in different configurations and an X-ray range offering inspection widths of up to 1,200 mm makes it possible to handle both conventional packaging lines and more complex bakery applications, with wide belts, multi-lane products and large packs.
Where necessary, products can undergo inspection tests to verify the technology's performance in practice and identify the most suitable configuration before installation.
Because in quality control the machine is only part of the solution: required sensitivity, product, packaging and line integration must all be assessed together.
