The fast growing food, pharma and biotechnology sectors will help catalayse the growth of metal detector industry in India which is all set to witness a 2-3 per cent extra growth in the coming year in addition to its usual 15-18 per cent growth. However, experts from metal detection sector caution that the industry needs to pull up its socks with adherence to quality standards.
Though the future of the metal detector industry is bright, experts feel that, it is high time that the small and big companies had a global perspective and focused on upgrading quality. “The demand is all set to grow as the food processing and pharmaceutical industry are ever evolving and dynamically changing their manufacturing lines to bring out the best quality products. All these days, we were focused only on the affordability factor of the domestic market despite the financial challenges.The sector can definitely become one of the leading producers of affordable and high quality metal detectors, provided the government came up with clear cut policy decisions and support. Then only the Indian industry can hope to become a manufacturing hub for the global markets,” observed Manoj K. Shashidharan, Director of SMMS Engineering Systems.
“The metal detector industry in India is still at a nascent stage. Majority of the manufacturers are small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SMEs) and vulnerable to financial aspects. Therefore it needs to evolve a lot to build large volume capacities with huge investments to cope with the international demand and quality,” opined . Shashidharan.
However, with the central government coming up with new initiatives like ‘Make in India’, many of the metal detector manufacturers are optimistic and are waiting to see how best they can cash in on the government initiatives to make themselves bigger and voluminous to meet the international demand.
According to Dattu Malli, Head Sales of Das Electronics, the demand for metal detectors in pharmaceutical segments in India is almost saturated as except a few small and medium sized pharma and biotechnology companies, majority of the companies prefer to import metal detectors.
“All the leading pharmaceuticals companies like Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s and others prefer to import the metal detectors from Germany, USA, France etc, while the smaller ones look towards the economically viable and affordable ones in India. In fact we too have the talent and required technology to make the best of best metal detector equipment, but bigger companies need to support. Instead of spending crores of rupees on imported equipment, if they give us a chance, we shall definitely meet their quality standards,” opined Dattu Malli of Das Electronics.
Other industry experts also feel that the ‘Make in India’ initiative by the government has come in the right time to boost the confidence of the local industry. It has not only encouraged investors, but also has instilled the much needed confidence among the new entrepreneurs and innovators to think bigger not only just to meet the local demand but to compete with the global players.
Need & role of metal detectors
Metal detectors play a vital role in pharma, biotechnology and food industry in bringing out quality and contamination free products. Metal detectors are used in food and pharmaceutical industries to detect metal contamination in products or packets. The metal contamination may occur in food and pharmaceutical products due to the presence of metallic pieces or components (viz., fasteners, pins, buds, eroded or corroded metallic parts etc.) in ferrous, non-ferrous, or stainless steel materials.
The detection of such metal contamination is important and in this detection process, high accuracy and reliability are essential. Thus a metal detector plays an important role in ensuring product safety. Metal detector also protects equipment and regulates compliance in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Thus overall, it plays an important role in maintaining the organization’s reputation.
Particularly, in the pharma industry there is a possibility that the products get contaminated by metallic parts either magnetic or non-magnetic. This is due to metal-object contamination (ingredient contamination, mixing-process errors and machinery failures) and due to the use of various process equipment viz. reactors, agitated and storage vessels, classifiers, dryers, pumps, valves, pipes etc. in the synthesis, processing and storage and most of these equipment, pipes, valves and pumps are made up of metals.
For example, in large-scale dehydrogenation processes nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and mixtures containing potassium, chromium, copper, aluminium and other metals are used.
In many pharmaceutical processing, unsaturated organic compounds that contain double and or triple bonds need to be hydrogenated. Platinum black, palladium black, copper metal, copper oxide, nickel oxide, aluminium and other materials have subsequently been developed as hydrogenation catalysts. Abrasive materials can wear mill parts and screens. In these operations, there are chances the products get contaminated with various metallic components. The final food and pharmaceutical products must free from metal contamination as per GMP standards.
Metal detectors are mostly used for US State Department of Agriculture (USDA), Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) or US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) Certifications in India and other countries.
Depending on the purpose, different types of metal detectors are available for checking metallic contamination in the food and pharmaceutical industries. For examining small and unpacked goods such as vegetables, snack items, frozen foods, sea foods, poultry and packed medicine conveyor type metal detectors are most suitable. Metal detectors with advanced microprocessor-based technology are highly advantageous for checking coarse-grained food stuffs such as popcorn, cornflakes and soup noodles.
Types of metal detectors:
Based on their use and purpose, metal detectors are of many types.
Electromagnetic induction measurement: The operation of these metal detectors is based on the principles of electromagnetic induction. Metal detectors contain one or more inductor coils that are used to interact with metallic elements on the food or pharmaceutical products. Metallic contaminant in the product creates high frequency magnetic field within the detector coil, which in turn activates a reject flap by means of a solenoid. The detector is designed in such a way that it automatically removes the metal components form tablets without production interruption. The metallic contaminant is reliably rejected with very little loss of material due to the extremely fast and short activation of the reject flap of the detector. This type of metal detectors is mostly used to detect the presences of metal contamination in continuous tablets manufacturing process.
This type of metal detector can be easily cleaned and are compatible with all tablet press. It has high sensitivity to all metals including the most difficult non-magnetic stainless steel. Its performance is maintained stable throughout the life.
Multi-frequency transmission and receiving: This type of metal detector is working on the principle of multi-frequency transmission and receiving. Multi-coil arrangements are used for the transmission and receiving of multi-frequency in metal detection. The multi-frequency created by the multi-coil arrangement improves the signal viewed by the receiver. Compared with a single transmitter with two receivers, multi-coil arrangements can improve detection performance (as measured by the diameter of the metal sphere size that can be detected) of the instrument by up to 20 per cent.
Quality and integrity are the fundamental requirements for products from the pharmaceutical industry. Effective product protection is pivotal throughout manufacture and packaging in the pharmaceutical and food industries, for ethical pharmaceutical formulations, generic equivalents, or over-the-counter solid dosage products.
Radiofrequency signals: Radiofrequency metal detectors contain a transmitter antenna that produces radiofrequency signals ranging from 300 kHz to 1 MHz. Two receiver antennas sit on each side of the transmitter at equal distance from the transmitter. When the system is balanced and there is no magnetic or conductive inside the aperture of the metal detector, the difference of the two signals is zero, signifying that no metal is present. When metal is present and traveling through the detector, a detectable imbalance is created.
Very low frequency measurement: Metal detectors based on the operating principle of Very Low Frequency (VLF) measurement principle are the most commonly used. These metal detectors contain two sets of coils, namely, transmitter coil and receiver coil. Electricity is passed through the transmitter coil to create a magnetic field. This constantly pushes the electricity into the ground and pulls it back up. The magnetic field so generated interacts with any metallic or conductive object that comes in its way. The receiver coil passes the electric current whenever the metal detector passes over a conductive object. This amplifies and sends the frequency of the current to the control box. Metal detectors, using VLF technology, detect metals and determine the difference between different types of metals and the depth at which they are located.