The latest addition to Hauni’s family of sensors is actually another existing product that developers have turned into something very advanced indeed. The original had not taken long to top a sales figure of 2,400, rapidly setting a standard throughout the cigarette industry.

"Customers were beginning to ask for more NTRM detection capabilities, so when we got started on the MIDAS-XR project we decided to give our popular MIDAS system a thorough makeover," says product expert Niels Ruge from Hauni Engineering. "That was partly because we had a few more objectives in mind – quite ambitious ones. Apart from optimizing the unit’s measurement and control accuracy, we wanted to expand its measuring range to include light and ultralight weights and also improve the design for easier operation and maintenance."

The fact that MIDAS-XR offers better performance than its predecessor is partly due to its higher resolution measurement action and partly to the new mathematical model on which MIDAS-XR is based. "Our engineers not only gave the system model a higher definition to minimize any inaccuracies but have also optimized the unit’s product measuring range," explains Ruge. "The result is a marked improvement in all MIDAS-XR’s functions including weight control. Whereas MIDAS only gave customers a choice between fixed weight ranges, the setting on MIDAS-XR is infinitely variable, allowing them to set a cigarette’s exact target weight. Whatever setting you select, you always get the optimum measurement resolution." The system naturally features high-performance hardware too.

Developers have also designed MIDAS-XR with a much wider measuring range, allowing cigarettes with a high moisture content and extremely light weights (260 to 360 mg in a 70 mm tobacco rod) to be produced dependably and with excellent results.

"The extra flexibility that MIDAS-XR provides is another factor that helps to make operation easier," explains Ruge’s colleague Reiner Knopp from Product Management. "Customers using the previous model had to send their sensors to Hamburg for calibration if they wanted to set weights outside the existing ranges. Now they can do that job on their own, calibrating any weight they like with the added advantage of being able to use any unit on practically any of their cigarette makers. That not only saves time but is cheaper too."

But MIDAS-XR has yet another point in its favor which Hauni customers may not notice immediately: MIDAS-XR users will continue to benefit from more accurate measurement action in the longer term as the unit’s much stronger measurement signal is hardly affected by the age-related signal attenuation that tends to occur in microwave systems. Ruge is pleased to report positive feedback: "The results of the very first field tests that were carried out over a period of two weeks on a PROTOS 90E indicate an enormous increase in performance. In fact the unit’s NTRM hit rate is nearly two and a half times better than its predecessor." MIDAS-XR not only detects smaller particles reliably but even materials which were previously hard to distinguish.

MIDAS-XR can also be retrofitted to single rod cigarette makers from Hauni and many machines from other manufacturers. Older models that currently still feature a nuclear-based weight control system need to have a WIN 2 weight control system fitted in addition. WIN 2 is capable of processing microwave signals for weight control purposes and is designed to work with customer- specific applications as well as with Hauni’s latest generation of sensors.