Pure tobacco guaranteed

Compact

Challenge

Tobacco is a natural material that always contains non-tobacco related materials (NTRM). These must be removed to prevent their inclusion in end products, which could have serious consequences for consumers. However, existing sorting solutions have major drawbacks – they are complex to operate, have high maintenance costs and, above all, their sorting efficiency declines over time.

Solution

Equipped with state-of-the-art camera technology, the new belt sorter PURE offers an impressive alternative with:

• simple operation
• simple self-service
• up to a 66 percent reduction in maintenance costs
• a constant efficiency of more than 85 percent

Better early than late

There are several issues to consider. Some cigarette manufacturers simply rely on NTRM detection in the maker. But this is far from an optimal solution. Firstly, there is the risk of not detecting NTRM at all. In this case, the first person to notice the quality problem would be the consumer. Secondly, the number of NTRM particles increases dramatically during the cutting process. Moreover, the maker may reject up to ten cigarettes when it detects NTRM and this is extremely wasteful of tobacco, paper and filters. Nor does the exclusive use of metal detectors – which are mainly used to protect equipment and only remove ferro-magnetic objects from the tobacco – eliminate the negative effects of NTRM.

Lower costs, higher efficiency

Even monitoring NTRM with laser sorters – a widely used solution – has its pitfalls. “Not only do laser solutions consume a lot of spare parts, they also require highly qualified operators and maintenance personnel. This creates major difficulties in everyday production. The lasers have to be calibrated and replaced regularly by external specialists,” explains Schuster. “If the manufacturer fails to adhere meticulously to the specified maintenance intervals, there will be a steady drop in sorting performance – which can lead to a total breakdown.”

PURE – the enhanced, camera-based belt sorter developed by the Hauni Group – solves all these problems. Its camera-based technology is more robust and easier to handle than laser systems. It requires few spare parts and, naturally, no replacement of lasers. Handling and maintenance are very easy, and employees can operate the system after just a short introduction.

“As a result, we can reduce maintenance costs by up to two thirds and the system achieves a constant sorting efficiency of more than 85 percent under optimum conditions, with a tobacco loss of less than 0.3 percent,” says Schuster. “In order to achieve this level of performance, our PURE family – developed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, Systems Technologies and Image Exploitation – features the latest image processing technology, state-of-the-art cameras and LED lighting strips. We are proud to present our customers with the world’s most efficient optical sorter.”