Machine Guard & Cover Co. is excited to announce the launch of its metal detectable 1/8″ ABS plastic. This material is intended to be used when guarding light-duty hazard locations in the food or pharmaceutical industries where an all-metal guard would traditionally be required. Following the current industry practice of using a highly-visual material, guards in this material are available in blue only.
All Machine Guard & Cover Co. light duty parts in the, 2-Bolt, 3-Bolt, 4-Bolt, Pillow Block, Round Flanged Cover and Conveyor Roof families can be formed with this material. Custom fabrication is also available for unique guarding solutions.
Metal detectable plastic has previously been exclusively available for injection molded parts. This is the first time that a metal detectable thermoformable material has been available. Use of this material over traditional stainless steel provides a significant weight savings when the guard is removed for maintenance purposes. Plastic guards also deaden sound and never rust.
IZOD Impact Resistance ASTM D256 testing has been performed on the material with an average strength of 2.5 foot pounds per inch.
Metal detectability testing has resulted in a sample of 3mm x 3mm x 2mm returning positive results comparable to a 1mm mild steel sphere. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers a physical contaminate with a dimension of 7mm or larger to be a potential choking hazard, significantly larger than the detectability rate of this material.
Liquid line systems typically are set up to detect between 0.5mm and 2.5mm mild steel test spheres depending on the pipe size and product signal and packaged products typically are setup to detect between 1.5mm and 4.0mm mild steel test spheres depending on the aperture size and the product signal.