Irregular Shaped
Moisture Control of Irregular Products
Irregular shaped products are a characterization of material with asymmetrical or uneven presentation to the target area of moisture measurement. These types of products include potato chips, chopped nuts, bagasse and a large variety of other types of products and materials.
Real-Time Moisture Measurement
Many of Sensortech’s clients are surprised to learn that implementing the proper type of moisture measurement technology will allow them to measure the moisture in their product in real-time.
Food Grade Moisture Control
Examples of irregular shaped products exist throughout many different industries; a primary example being throughout the snack food industry. Potato chips, tortilla chips, popcorn, pretzels, and many other products are good examples of irregular shaped products in the snack food industry that do not have uniformity to their shape.
Food Grade IR Analyzers
Sensortech’s IR technology packaged in a nickel plated or stainless steel enclosure are ideally suited for these types of applications. An NIR-6100 Series Moisture Analyzer having a nickel plated enclosure will suffice for most applications requiring food grade protections while the NIR-6300 with its stainless steel enclosure and IP67 rating is designed for food grade applications in harsher environments.
Biomass IR Analyzers
Other examples of irregular shaped products can be found throughout the biomass industry. Hog fuel is a good example in particular. Product mixes such as bark, saw dust, wood chips and any number of other biomass materials being processed together are especially suited for Sensortech’s IR technology.
Product Mix
The moisture content of each product in the product mix has a high level of variability and can be measured and controlled with Sensortech’s proprietary technology. The NIR-6000 Industrial Grade Moisture Analyzer will serve a majority of applications in the biomass industry.
Uniformity in Bulk Density
Uniform presentation such as a board, powder, liquid and any number of other products having consistent bulk density when approaching a moisture sensor pose a different type of challenge to measurement accuracy than do products that are irregularly shaped. Part of the challenge of measuring irregularly shaped products is that the bulk density of the product is an unknown. For this reason, RF moisture sensors will not suffice for the application but will require an optical measurement such as IR technology.
IR Moisture Technology
Bulk density has a minimal influence of measurement on the NIR-6000 Series Moisture Analyzers but is also insensitive to changes in product distance and temperature. These characteristics of the NIR-6000 Series make it ideally suited for the continuous moisture measurement of irregular shaped products.
Non-Contact Moisture Measurement
A non-contact measurement is ideal for the continuous measurement of moisture in irregular shaped products. The negligible influence that changes in bulk density have on Sensortech’s IR Moisture Analyzers provide the capability of measuring products that have a high variability in shape; this is the nature of the technology.
Product Height Variation
Additionally, variability in product height or distance from the product to the analyzer have a minimal influence on the measurement. Sensortech’s proprietary optical architecture enhances the insensitivity of changes to product height variations. This benefit of the optical architecture is due, in part, to the exceptionally large surface area of the IR detector and electronic design.