Pickled fruit manufacturer slashes set up times and improves quality control after installing a vacuum measurement system for jar lids

A manufacturer of pickled fruits based in Kent has reduced set up times on three of its filling lines by more than 60 per cent after installing a non-contact vacuum integrity measurement system for jar lids from Micro-Epsilon.

Established in 1880, Bennett Opie is a private, family-owned business based in Sittingbourne, Kent. The company manufactures a wide range of products, including pickled walnuts, cocktail cherries, lemon slices and luxury bottled fruit such as pears and peaches, as well as organic sauces. Most products are packed into vacuum-tight jars with metal lids.

There are three main filling lines at the Sittingbourne plant, which between them run continuously for 10 hours a day, 4 to 5 days per week. Empty jars are fed into each line, where they first pass through a jar cleaning station. Next, the jars are fed to a spice dosing system (if the product requires this) and then through a solids filler, where the jars are filled at high speed with fruits or other solid foods. The jars are filled with a liquid preservative, then transferred to a metal detector system that checks each jar for traces of metal. Towards the end of the line, a metal lid is screwed onto each jar. The final stage involves each jar lid passing through a vacuum integrity check or “dud detector”, which is performed by a ‘vacCONTROL’ non-contact eddy current measurement system supplied by Micro-Epsilon, installed on each of the three filling lines.