SATRA invests in footwear X-ray system
Introducing a new SATRA service for member companies.

SATRA has invested in an advanced X-ray system for examining footwear, which will also have application for assessing many other types of products.

Introducing a new SATRA service for member companies.
Replacing our previous X-ray machine, the Ishida IX-GA-4075-S is a large belt-fed system that can be used for non-destructive testing of a whole range of products. Products as wide as 400mm can be assessed, giving the capability to scan boxed or unboxed products as large as boxed men's safety footwear.
An X-ray system has many advantages over a conventional metal detector. Foremost of these is that the machine's ability to detect foreign bodies is not compromised by the presence of metal components – such as steel shanks or metallic toe caps – that are expected to be present within the footwear.
The IX-GA system can 'see' through most types of packaging, even aluminium foil, enabling an operator to check that product boxes contain a matched pair, with all the appropriate components. With its advanced software for automatic detection, the system can be programmed to ignore high-density items that form part of the product, including metal shanks, ceramic toecaps, zips and other closures, while quickly identifying erroneous objects such as broken sewing needles.

The new system can be used to identify foreign objects within a shoe, despite the presence of metallic components, and represents a significant increase in capability
A valuable tool
With this equipment, SATRA can now offer an enhanced range of assessment services to our members, such as:
- locating and identifying foreign objects within samples – both metallic and non-metallic – such as broken sewing needles, footwear tacks, broken eyelets and other potential contaminants
- identifying defects in moulded materials, including voids and excess porosity
- confirming the presence and correct position of items within the footwear, such as toe caps, shanks and perforation-resistant inserts, as well as toe and heel reinforcements
- checking for defects within embedded items – for example, shanks and toecaps
- bulk checking of a large quantity of goods, using the machine’s automatic detection software
- individual assessment and analysis of a single piece of footwear to identify faults or potential problems
- providing detailed images for inclusion in test reports.
How can we help?
Members interested in X-ray scanning and assessment are welcome to email research@satra.com – the research team will also be happy to demonstrate the system as part of a visit to SATRA’s UK headquarters.
Publishing Data
This article was originally published on page 6 of the October 2016 issue of SATRA Bulletin.
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