Something I’ve noticed throughout my years at FlexXray: all it takes is one project for customers to realize the full value of third-party X-ray inspection services. Earlier this year, we completed a one-off project for a brand new customer that has since turned into an ongoing partnership.
The customer, a producer of pet treats and wellness products, relies on standard in-line machinery for efficient throughput. However, when a piece of that machinery broke, it left 3 mm pieces of metal in the product—a fact that was discovered by one of their downstream customers. Upon re-running the product, contaminants were discovered across multiple bags, leading their customer to request that all future products undergo third-party inspection before acceptance.
This producer couldn’t detect contaminants down to the size requested by their customer, which led them to look at external resource options. After all, if you’re not getting the detailed data you need from in-house rework or re-inspection, you’re not taking full advantage of the opportunity to understand and eliminate foreign material at its source. You’re letting a secondary solution simmer instead of going after the primary, root cause. Talk about the tail wagging the dog!
Our customer knew that they needed someone who could detect small pieces of metal in their product and ensure it was safe for final disposition. So began FlexXray’s X-ray inspection process.
This product is packaged in .55 oz. bags, with 18 units per master case. Because of our extensive capabilities, product could remain inside the case and run through the inspection line quickly. While the customer only expected to find ferrous material, we inspected for stainless and non-ferrous as well (and we found them). Additionally, we detected contaminants that exceeded the size the customer asked for, down to 0.8 mm.
That’s the FlexXray way—we go above and beyond on every project. In this case, we inspected 237.5 pounds of food to determine what was safe for market.
While it was this customer’s first time using FlexXray’s services, we’ve since partnered with them for 4 projects in the last 5 months. We’re now a consistent part of their quality assurance process.
Like I said before: all it takes is one project to see the value in third-party X-ray inspection. Next time you encounter a foreign material contamination issue at your plant, give FlexXray a call.
