Thermo Electron Expands its Line of Checkweigher Offerings for Food and Pharma Packaging Industries
06 May 2005
New Specialty Models Offer Customers a Greater Range of Options
Reinforcing its role as an industry leader in a broad range of checkweighing applications, Thermo Electron Corporation [NYSE:TMO] has introduced two new models to its GP Checkweigher line of products. The latest additions to the Thermo Electron line of checkweigher products feature a more durable checkweigher for the food packaging industry that offers greater package width capacity, and a higher accuracy, faster checkweigher for smaller, lighter packs that will complement its existing high-end checkweigher for use in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
With global heritage brand names in the checkweigher industry that include Ramsey, TechnoEuropa, HiTech, Best Inspection and Icore, Thermo Electron draws from a knowledge base of more than five decades of industry experience. Furthermore, Thermo’s global reach enables it the advantage of offering a standard line of checkweigher products to the worldwide market.
As with existing Thermo GP checkweigher models, the new products feature a clean, cantilevered design with a compact footprint, easily adjustable height, quick belt release for easy cleaning, direct control of infeed, weightable and outfeed motors as well as brushless DC motors.
“We responded to our Food and Pharma customers needs,“ noted Martin Lymn, global checkweigher product manager. “Our new GP-200 expands our world-class checkweigher product line to offer a wider, more durable model for food packaging as well as for lighter packs at higher speeds common in the pharmaceutical and food industries.”
The GP-275 -- Delivering Flexible Options to the Food Packaging Industry
New in the line of Thermo checkweigher offerings is the GP-275. The GP-275 now offers food packaging facilities a belt wider (275mm) than the original GP 200 with more powerful brushless DC motors. Like the GP-200, the GP-275 offers a high accuracy product conveying belt in addition to an FDA-approved direct food contact belt – both variants allowing for quick removal and changeover resulting in easy cleaning and reduced downtime in IP-65 environments. Also, as with the GP-200, the GP-275 can operate at up to 250 ppm while delivering accuracies as good as 250 mg, significantly reducing costly give-away. Other standard features include auto-zeroing for accuracy, automatic self-diagnostics, digital filtering and password protection with intuitive user interface packages that permit product changeover in a matter of seconds. The weight capacity of the GP-275 is 2.5kg (5.5lbs) and the design is fully cantilevered off the controller for a clean finish. In keeping with the larger pack sizes the GP-275 belt width is designed to support, a longer 500mm weigh-table is also available on this latest model.
GP-Pharma – Diversifying the Product Line for Pharmaceutical Customers
Thermo Electron also recognized the need to satisfy customer requirements for smaller, faster packs with high accuracy – often a need in the pharmaceutical industry – and has responded to that need with the GP Pharma. While Thermo already manufactures the specialty Rx checkweigher, the GP-Pharma, with a product weight capacity of 500g, has been developed to bridge the gap between the general purpose product lines and the high-end Rx weigher. With the same weighing technology as used in the high-end Rx, the GP-Pharma ensures accuracy. Finally, to allow sizing for best accuracy, two PWT belt widths are available (80mm and 140mm) while infeed and outfeed conveyors will remain standardized with a 150mm belt width. When coupled with Thermo’s AC9000 controller, options such as reject verification, full failsafe, FDA validation support and 21CFR Part 11 capabilities deliver the highest integrity weighing system available.
