Glossary
What is Multihead weigher?
Also called: combination weigher, multi-head weigher
A multihead weigher portions product by weight. It weighs many small hoppers at once and releases the combination that comes closest to the target pack weight.
Product is fed onto the top of the machine and spreads out to a ring of pool hoppers. Each pool hopper feeds a weigh hopper below it. The weigher's computer reads every weigh hopper and chooses the combination of hoppers that adds up closest to the target, for example 100 g. It opens those hoppers, and the portion drops through a chute into the packing machine, most often a VFFS bagger or a tray line.
Some machines add booster hoppers, which give the computer more combinations to choose from. Mixing versions can weigh several components into one pack. Sticky products such as fresh meat or cheese can be moved with belts or screw feeders instead of vibration. Ishida developed the multihead weigher in the 1970s.