Metal scanner

In the food industry, metal detection is a fundamental safeguard—protecting consumers, ensuring compliance, and preventing costly recalls. Yet many production lines still rely on ageing systems that were never designed for today’s performance and traceability demands.

In this case, we were brought in to rejuvenate a 30-year-old metal scanner.

What was needed

We were contracted by a well-established manufacturer of metal scanners for the food industry that faced a problem. Their line of metal scanners had a good reputation as they were reliable and among the very best when they were developed 30 years ago.

However, technology had advanced over the 30 years since the introduction of their scanners, and they were starting to lag behind their competitors. At the same time, the microprocessor used in their product was no longer in production, and existing stock was dwindling. It was clear that, for the company to survive, a new, state-of-the-art metal scanner was needed.

Initially, they had hired a traditional consultancy firm to develop a new state-of-the-art metal scanner from scratch. However, that project ultimately failed after extensive time and budget overruns, and the company was running out of time.

What was needed was a new, future-proof product that could be introduced to the market in a very short timeframe.

What was done

When we conducted the 360° initial analysis in collaboration with the client, we realised that the one thing that had changed over the 30 years was the firmware/algorithms of metal scanners, while the mechanical construction and analogue electronics had seen minimal change.

That made us realise that their problems were confined to the out-of-production microprocessor and the inability to update its firmware, while there was no reason to develop a new mechanical construction or analogue electronics. Ironically, their microprocessor was so old that it presented a unique solution. The size of microprocessors has shrunk, allowing us to create a piggyback PCB with a modern microprocessor that matches the pin-out of the old processor.

This allowed us to develop new firmware and algorithms for the metal scanner, enabling it to match or exceed competitors’ performance.

What was achieved

• Their existing metal scanner was updated to match competitors’ performance at a fraction of the time, cost, and risk it would have taken to develop a new one.