Greifensee, Switzerland (PressExposure) September 06, 2010 -- Focus on quality
Annually, over 50 million pouches and 12 million bottles leave Orthomol's Langenfeld sites, which are home not only to the company's R&D, medicine and marketing departments, but also to its quality assurance department - a key focus within the company. Over 370 employees work at the two sites in Langenfeld and as field sales representatives.
The Langenfeld-based enterprise is the first of its kind to achieve ISO 22000:2005 certification. By adhering to this comprehensive standard for food safety, the plant ensures the highest quality and safety of its products, from development and raw material selection to the finished product. METTLER TOLEDO GARVENS technology is a key tool in the company's quality efforts.
"A trusting relationship with our suppliers is important to us," explained Michael Grimm, who is responsible for quality management in Orthomol's technical operations. "We have found a partner in METTLER TOLEDO GARVENS, who meets our strict quality standards."
Orthomol uses METTLER TOLEDO GARVENS' S2 and XS2 checkweighers to reliably and securely verify the weight of products packaged in flat pouches. Overweight or underweight products are identified and removed by fast-action lift gate conveyors. Additionally, to ensure that the highly reflective pouches are reliably detected, special light barriers are used.
A double lane XS2 system with a clearly laid out weighing terminal checks the correct weight of up to 120 sachets per minute, achieving an accuracy of 30 mg. Orthomol uses this system to check up to 15 different manufactured articles in capsule form, including Orthomol Vital f®. This product was developed for the nutrition-based medical treatment of women with chronic fatigue, burn-out syndrome and stress-related illnesses.
Single-lane XS2 checkweighers ensure that the weight of pouches with granules and tablets/capsules is correct. One such product is Orthomol Immun®, which is used for the dietary treatment of acute and chronic infections and is available as granules, tablets/capsules or ready-to-drink vials. Integrated into Orthomol's production line, the checkweigher inspects 80 pouches per minute at a conveyor belt speed of 23m per minute. The XS2 achieves an accuracy of 30 mg and can be switched over to a new product with ease, enabling up to 10 different products to be checked on the production line.
Across Orthomol's 10 production lines, all GARVENS checkweighers are controlled by the remote access tool CW-ReAcT II and are networked accordingly to allow the monitoring and archiving of checkweigher information. The user has central access to all printable data on the checkweighers and can even centrally maintain the article master data for a comprehensive assessment of quality.
The METTLER TOLEDO subsidiaries GARVENS and SAFELINE were recently merged to form a sales and service unit. In the newly founded PI Division, the METTLER TOLEDO Group now covers the full scope of modern product inspections in a single entity. This makes METTLER TOLEDO the leading global supplier of inline checkweighers, metal detectors and X-ray inspection systems.