Korean Quality Tester Expands to the World

Source from:  Tobacco Asia  03/06/2014

The Korean company YM Tech recently entered the cigarette and filter quality tester market with a new product, the KARDIEN-Test Station (www.kardien.co.kr). YM Tech was established by a group of researchers from the Korean tobacco company KT&G, which has a 115-year history in the industry and produces its own popular cigarette brand, Esse.

The new quality measuring machine launched in Korea in June, 2013 following several years of R&D, and is now looking to expand globally. YM Tech president Seung Jae Lee says, "We are planning to advance into the overseas markets with KARDIEN, starting at the ProToBex exhibition held in Bali, Indonesia in February."

Modules on the new test station include weight; circumference, diameter, and roundness; plus pressure drop and ventilation; and hardness. There is also a sorter, which can measure the physical properties of cigarette and filter. "All modules are manufactured based on ISO standards, and the measured data has high levels of accuracy and credibility," Lee continues.

The company constructed the test station with two distinctive features in order to make it user-friendly. "An important aspect of the new test station was easy and low cost maintenance. We also wanted to avoid the problem of sticking during operation," Lee explains.

Firstly, they took on board that existing quality testers have to be dissembled for maintenance and repair, and have intricate structures that can make them difficult to clean inside.

"We came up with a new design to minimize the number of components that have to be replaced. Therefore, complex maintenance work is not required. In addition, the measuring parts and component parts are completely separate in order to prevent cigarette fillers or foreign substances from contaminating electronic components during the measuring process.

"The result is that cleaning is much easier – blowing one's breath would be enough to clean the inside – and the tester rarely sticks, which helps to minimize any interruption to the measuring process."

Lee says the new test station has introduced improvements "in every aspect" that users might feel inconvenient while using existing quality testers. "Since it's based on MS Windows, its HMI [Human Machine Interface] is very user-friendly," he continues. "The only thing the user has to do is select a physical item to measure on the touch panel. Once the measurement is done, the result can be printed out right away. It can also be saved as an Excel file, so data can be transferred to an external storage device or sent out via network communications."

YM Tech also wanted to keep the product sales price low and measurement speed fast. "The KARDIEN uses Programmable Logic Controller to decrease the number of components inside. Therefore, one of its strong points is faster measurement of physical properties by 18% compared to existing testers," Lee claims.

In cases where one of the modules is not used for a period of time, it is possible to remove it and replace with another. "Since the machine automatically acknowledges the composition, the user can continue using the machine with no interruption."

YM-Tech has already supplied the test station to manufacturing factories of KT&G and Korean filter manufacturing companies. "This year it will be equipped with a portfolio of 18 products, including a capsule detecting unit and a capsule crushing strength tester," Lee says. Enditem