At Pasta Montana, the focus on quality permeates every activity at every step of the manufacturing process. One shining example of this dedication is the company’s recent decision to be the first pasta manufacturer in the United States to install a digital sorter that ejects foreign material (FM) and defects from the product stream. After thoroughly analyzing their options, they chose to work with Key Technology and selected Optyx, which was installed in July 2013 on the line that produces short pastas like penne, shells, and elbows.

“As a pasta manufacturer for Japanese customers that accept zero defects, we need to ensure the quality of our product. Of course, our domestic customers appreciate this, too,” says Claude Smith, plant manager at Pasta Montana. “We wanted to add a quality control step that was as close to certain as we could get. We were looking for a way to guarantee perfect pasta. That’s what drove this project.”

 …