Sensors & Electronics
Awards & Recognition
R&D 100 Awards
The developers of the Knife Blade Failure Detection System.
2000 - Multi-Blade Knife Failure Detector (KFD) for Food Processing
Developers: James R. Skorpik, Joe C. Harris, Richard A. Pappas, John Julian (Lamb-Weston)
The KFD is a wireless acoustic emission system for food processing lines that immediately identifies knife failures. It was developed by engineers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the Lamb-Weston Technical Research Center to ensure high quality while reducing costs associated with labor, product loss, and environmentally compliant waste disposal.
Blade failure in advanced cutting mechanisms causes irregular cuts, generating truckloads of strips that the plant must frequently pay to have removed for animal feed. Organic nitrogen in the remaining slush adds to the plant's waste-processing burden.
Human inspectors can't catch knife breaks quickly; typically an hour's worth or more of product was affected before a break was spotted. Available technologies did not solve the problem. The wet environment made direct wiring to the sensor undesirable, and plant noise overwhelmed the snap of a blade break. The Knife Failure Detector (KFD) overcomes those problems and instantly detects part failure and triggers redirection of product flow.
The entire process of detection, alarm, and knife replacement now takes less than a second. The low incidence of irregular cuts and false-calls further demonstrates the effectiveness of the system. Several food processing plants have installed the KFD, significantly reducing annual cutting losses.
The technology has applications beyond food processing, such as for detecting leaks in piping and containment vessels, and in other industrial equipment operations where access prevents the use of cabling, including the monitoring of rotating machinery for failure, misalignments, loose parts, and process stream properties.
Excerpted from PNNL R&D 100 webpage.
Selected Links to Related Information:
- Related Examples (Same Project)
- Related Websites
- Multi-Blade Knife Failure Detector - 2000 FLC Award Winner