New Fortress checkweigher for SME and dairy

Created for artisan food businesses to improve profit margins by driving down expensive overfilling, the new Raptor Checkweigher is the company’s most high spec economic checkweigher for washdown environments. By reducing product giveaway on premium product lines, the company said the payment is fast. In some cases, predicted ROI can be several weeks or less.

At the start of 2021, global food prices hit a six-year high. Already hit by income losses during the pandemic, now the cost of food staples, including essential ingredients such as grains, sugar, soybeans, corn, cocoa and spices, is impacting pricing strategies and profits for many SMEs.

For dairy producers in particular, rising farmgate operational costs and volatile pricing continue to impact dairy commodities and consequently craft dairy manufacturers.  

Fortress managing director Phil Brown said, “While giveaway is a long accepted practice to guarantee compliance with weight regulations, for artisan food producers and ingredient SMEs especially, even nominal overfilling escalates rapidly to lost profits.”​

Weighing up to 200 packs per minute in motion, the Raptor’s digital checkweighing processor achieves a reliable weight accuracy of ±​0.025 grams.

The standard Raptor Checkweigher can weigh lightweight product packs, up to a maximum of 8kg. An XL version is available for bulk applications. Operating as a standalone product feed and packing weighing unit, the Raptor Checkweigher’s modular electronics suite allows for full integration with a Fortress metal detector or x-ray machine to create a combination system.

Made in the UK to assist UK SMEs avoid import taxes, the Raptor Checkweigher measures less than 1.3m with a reject system. The company said it also slots into existing craft dairy production lines with virtually no business disruption.