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Metal Contamination Removal Is Key to Success for Toll Processor

Becoming known for its ability to find and remove metal contaminants from customer products, Lakeshore Technologies relies heavily on metal detectors and magnetic separators from Eriez.

Lakeshore Technologies is known for its ability to solve metal contamination problems where others have failed.
Lakeshore Technologies is known for its ability to solve metal contamination problems where others have failed.
Photo courtesy of Eriez

Lakeshore Technologies has been offering its toll processing services to the food and pharmaceutical industries since 1997. Though still a relatively small company—with just 15 employees at its facility in Norton Shores, Mich.—Lakeshore processes some 6 million kilograms of product a year.

Lakeshore Technologies is known for its ability to solve metal contamination problems where others have failed.Lakeshore Technologies is known for its ability to solve metal contamination problems where others have failed.Photo courtesy of EriezOver the years, the processor has come to be known for its ability to solve metal contamination problems where others have failed.

This expertise came about after a very hard lesson early in Lakeshore’s history. When the company first started, it was running one line, with a mezzanine that went over the equipment. After it was installed, they realized there was one piece that wasn’t installed correctly, and they needed to drill a couple holes to fix it. Long story short, after running their first product, the customer found metal in it, and Lakeshore nearly went out of business with that loss of reputation.

“We had to find a way to stay in business, and magnets and metal detectors became our new best friend,” says Ricardo Lopez, Lakeshore’s president. “We wanted the strongest magnet we could find.”


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It was through this search that Lakeshore found Eriez and its rare earth magnetics. “We really looked into finding the greatest magnet out there,” Lopez says. “We went through a couple of magnetic separator suppliers until we came across Eriez and learned about their magnet’s ability to take 99 percent of the metal out of the product before going to the metal detector.”

A blind test commissioned by Eriez and conducted by Penn State compared 13 tube magnets from various suppliers to determine which would most effectively remove dangerous ferrous metal and weakly magnetic contaminants from process flows. It showed that the rare earth tube magnets from Eriez are able to remove metal contamination with a pull test strength that is 13 to 40% stronger than other commercially available magnets.

“We use the study as part of some of our audits to show how we compare to competitive offerings and provide evidence as to how and why our system is better,” Lopez says.

And Lakeshore uses the magnets to attract more customers—not only staying in business but actually becoming well known for its expertise in metal removal. “When FSMA [Food Safety and Modernization Act] was enacted, that helped us out tremendously. Most toll manufacturers at the time weren’t compliant with FSMA,” Lopez notes. “Even before it was enacted, we were already compliant.”

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