Goudsmit Magnetics Groep B.V. (Belgium) - Our customer, Solae Belgium S.A. (a Dupont company), is a supplier of ingredients to the food industry. They recently tightened internal control for metal contaminants in their products. To this end, they installed a new type of magnetic separator in their powder line: the Goudsmit Easy cleanflow magnet.

The problem:

Among other things, Solae processes a residue of soya powder into an ingredient for animal feed. This product contains metal particles and stainless steel wear particles that enter the product due to friction at the dryer drum. Metal particles are, of course, absolutely undesirable in any foodstuff. Found in most food processing companies, magnetic separators are important filters for very fine metal separation. They even capture metal particles as small as 30 µm that a metal detector would miss. Magnetic separators guarantee an optimum quality end product. Plus, they prevent product recalls and costly damage claims as well as – in some cases – machine crashes.

The requirements:

Solae asked us which magnet would be most effective for removing metal particles in the residual soya powder. The most important requirement to come out of the extensive briefing was that no operator would be needed. The second requirement concerned cleaning, which had to take place safely and efficiently. In addition, the unit had to be dust-tight, food-proof and fitted with food-safe EC1935 seals.

The solution:

To prevent metal contamination in the product, we placed a Goudsmit automatic Easy cleanflow magnet under the vibrating sieve. This unit is very suitable for the removal of metal particles and weakly magnetic stainless steel particles as small as 30 µm from powders. It is also easy to clean, at the touch of a button. The extremely high flux density of 12,000 gauss at the bars gives an extra high separation efficiency. Deflectors ensure that the iron particles always contact the magnetic bars.

Even grade 316 stainless steel particles:

Stainless steel particles, and especially those of grade 316, are very difficult to remove. We have done extensive effectiveness testing. This graph shows that by using a deflector, 60% of grade 316 stainless steel particles can be filtered out of the product.