| 1 | Food-Safety Compliance | Equipment design should support HACCP-based controls and applicable food-contact requirements. Manufacturing systems commonly reference ISO 9001, ISO 22000, BRCGS, or equivalent food-safety procedures. | Compliance documentation helps reduce audit risk and supports traceability throughout the inspection process. | Quality certificates, material declarations, food-contact documentation, factory audit reports, and calibration procedures. |
| 2 | Detection Sensitivity | Sensitivity must be specified separately for ferrous, non-ferrous, and stainless-steel test pieces. The achievable size depends on aperture height, product effect, speed, orientation, and package type. | A single sensitivity figure is not meaningful unless it is linked to a defined product, aperture, and operating condition. | Factory acceptance test, product-specific sensitivity results, and certified test-piece records for each product SKU. |
| 3 | Product-Effect Compensation | The detector should provide automatic or manual product learning for wet, salty, conductive, frozen, or high-moisture foods. | Moisture and salt can create electrical signals that resemble metal contamination and may increase false rejects. | Demonstration using the actual product, product-learning procedure, stability results, and false-reject statistics. |
| 4 | Hygienic Construction | Look for stainless-steel construction, sloped surfaces, minimal dirt traps, sealed conveyors, and hygienic access to inspection and reject areas. | A hygienic design makes cleaning easier and reduces the risk of microbial contamination and corrosion. | Equipment drawings, stainless-steel grade information, hygienic-design checklist, and cleaning validation guidance. |
| 5 | Ingress Protection | IP65 is generally suitable for protection against dust and low-pressure water jets. IP66 or IP69K may be considered for more demanding washdown environments, subject to the complete machine configuration. | The correct protection level improves reliability during routine cleaning and high-pressure washdown. | IP test certificate, washdown instructions, enclosure ratings for sensors and controls, and written warranty conditions. |
| 6 | Reject-System Reliability | Available systems may include air blast, pusher, drop-flap, retracting-band, or stop-and-alarm configurations. The selection depends on product weight, package format, line speed, and spacing. | A reliable reject system must remove contaminated products without damaging good products or interrupting production. | Reject validation report, reject confirmation sensor, fail-safe test, catch-bin monitoring, and line-speed calculation. |
| 7 | Line Integration | The machine should support suitable conveyor dimensions, product spacing, speed ranges, electrical interfaces, and communication protocols required by the existing production line. | Good integration prevents bottlenecks and reduces modifications to upstream and downstream equipment. | General arrangement drawings, electrical diagrams, interface list, conveyor-load data, and site-acceptance test plan. |
| 8 | Data Logging and Traceability | Useful functions include event logs, user access control, product recipes, test records, alarm history, date and time stamps, and exportable production data. | Electronic records support investigations, internal quality reviews, customer complaints, and third-party audits. | Software demonstration, sample reports, data-retention policy, user-permission matrix, and network-security information. |
| 9 | Validation and Calibration Support | The manufacturer should provide installation qualification, operational qualification, performance testing, routine test procedures, and calibration or verification intervals. | Regular verification demonstrates that the detector continues to operate at the approved critical control limit. | IQ/OQ/PQ templates, test-piece certificates, calibration records, preventive-maintenance schedule, and validation protocol. |
| 10 | After-Sales Service and Total Cost | Evaluate commissioning, spare-parts availability, remote support, technician response time, operator training, warranty coverage, and expected maintenance costs. | The purchase price is only one part of ownership cost; downtime and delayed technical support can be more expensive than the equipment itself. | Service-level agreement, spare-parts list, warranty terms, training plan, response-time commitment, and five-year cost estimate. |