Digital Re-print - March | April 2010

Feature title: Designing bagging lines to meet requirements

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by Peter Naef, Grain Processing Division, Bühler, Switzerland
Designing bagging lines
to meet requirements
Specifying and designing bagging lines for the food processing industry
A for low-fat dehydrated milk to wet sand
bagging line in a production plant
is closely tied to the associat-
ed production and distribu-
tion processes, including the upstream
and downstream logistics. This may
have an impact on the availability of
the entire production plant and must
therefore be taken into account in
evaluating and designing the line.
To achieve the best possible perform-
ance, it is essential that the production
management and distribution department
cooperate closely in defining the basic con-
cept of such a line.
The ”bag” as a container for packing
foods offers various benefits.
It allows an attractive presentation of the
product, is a significant advertising medium
and reflects the quality of the product it
contains.
28 | march - april 2010
In the grain-based food sector, bags are
made almost exclusively of paper, woven
plastic or textiles. A large number of suit-
able bag and bag closure types are available,
such as stitching with the optional addition
of tape-bound closures or a folding device;
gluing; or sealing. Each method has its specific
advantages and disadvantages.
But whatever bag and closure type is chosen,
this decision will always have an impact on the
entire bagging line and its design. In addition, the
bag materials used in fully automatic bagging lines
must meet higher quality requirements.
Operating reliability
and automation
In the design and specification of a bag-
ging line, it is essential to satisfy the specific
plant requirements. But a number of funda-
mental requirements must always be met by
bagging lines in food applications.
Bagging Feature
Ehcolo_AD_GFMT1002.indd 2
One key requirement is high operating
reliability and maximum flexibility.
Due to the complexity of a bagging line,
the individual components must be of high
quality and carefully matched in order to
ensure high operating reliability and maxi-
mum availability.
Today, automatic bag attachers and bag
transfer and spreading units are normally
part of the standard equipment of bagging
lines. If the proper bag materials are used,
an automatic bag attacher will be capable of
processing woven plastic bags as well as the
paper bags commonly applied.
A bag transfer and spreading unit trans-
fers the bag from the bagging spout and
feeds it automatically to the bag closing
system. Both automatic units increase the
throughput capacity and reduce the man-
power requirement. Both units can be inte-
grated either with a single-bag packer or in a
184x134_UK.indd 1
Grain &feed millinG technoloGy
New palletiser from EHCOLO
- With servo control and energy recovery system
As the first and only in the world, Ehcolo is now supplying its palletisers with servo control and kinetic energy recovery system,
which collect all the motors braking energy for re-use, so we can supply the first ”green” palletiser.
Products: all bag types and sizes.
Capacity: types from 300 to 2500 bags per hour.
We are also supplying robot palletisers.
We are also supplying turn-key bagging-palletizing–wrapping lines for any products.
EHCOLO A/S, Smedevej 10, DK-6683 Fovling
Tel. 75398411 E-mail post@ehcolo.dk Website: www.ehcolo.dk
25/03/2010 11:47
SACK-FILLING SYSTEMS
DESIGN,
DEVELOPMENT
PALLETISING SYSTEMS AND MANUFACTURE
CUSTOM-MADE PACKAGING SYSTEMS
 in plastic or paper sacks
  from tubular film to pre-made sacks
   with or without gussets
    from 1 to 50 kg
     by weight or volume
      from 100 to 2500 sacks per hour
       with any closure
        palletised in any pattern
         with water-resistant stretchhood
ARODO BVBA,  Hoge Mauw 740,  2370 Arendonk Belgium
Tel. +32 14 67 23 32,  Fax, +32 14 67 17 60
www.arodo.com
9/06/09 13:04
Grain &feed millinG technoloGy march - april 2010 | 29

Parameters
The main company-specific parameters
determining the selection of a bagging line are:
• Output per week (exclusive of
products shipped in bulk, Big
Bags, and small packages).
• Number of products and their
respective quantities, plus
precise product specifications
including bulk densities.
• Actual working hours
per shift and day.
• Number of workdays per week.
• Number of bag weight and
product changes per shift.
• Shares of the different bag
weights of the entire product
volume to be packed.
• Minimum storage time in
storage and bagging bins (for
“deaerating” or reducing the
volume before packing).
bagging carrousel equipped with three, four
or six spouts.
Accuracy and hygiene
Modern bagging lines are characterised
by their very high bagging weight accuracy
and their top hygienic standard. To achieve
accurate and consistent bagging weights, a
product feed system operating at a constant
capacity is needed in addition to specialist
know-how in the design of product stor-
30 | march - april 2010
Profitability
The profitability of a bagging line depends
essentially on the following factors:
• Investment matched to the
actual requirements.
• Employment of operating
personnel carefully planned.
• Level of automation matched
to specific needs.
• Highly accurate bag weights.
• Low energy consumption.
• Low cost of expendable materials.
• High uptime and flexibility.
• Short times for product and bag
weight changes, or none at all.
• Best possible design of the
entire logistics chain from bag
warehouse to loadout point.
• Minimised maintenance
and servicing.
age systems and of bagging bins and their
dischargers.
The feed and weighing system selected
must be matched to the product in question.
Despite optimal electronic weight monitor-
ing and automatic weight correction, it is
of advantage to install a check scale with an
automatic scrap bag ejector between the
bagging line and the palletiser or loadout
point to ensure complete monitoring of the
packed bags.
Bagging
Feature Feature
In the food sector, hygiene-related legal
requirements are becoming increasingly
stringent.
They must be satisfied by applying the
proper system design and preventing prod-
uct contamination. In this area, a substrac-
tive bagging scale with direct bag filling will
significantly reduce the risk of contamination
compared to conventional batch bagging
scales. Another advantage of substractive
weighing is that every actual filling weight is
registered and corrections can be made as
required even with fast bagging cycles.
Bag compacting &
centralised control
New, mechanical compacting systems
allow more efficient reduction of the volume
of bagged product and give bags a more
stable form.
At the same time, this reduces the han-
dling volume.
As in other areas, automation and cen-
tralised control are becoming increasingly
important for minimising the manpower
requirement of bagging lines. A state-of-
the-art control system will enable an entire
bagging line including the automatic palletiser
to be controlled and monitored from a single
touch-screen terminal.
Such control systems are capable, say, of
selecting a different bag weight together with
the appropriate bag sise or of changing the
bag layer pattern created by a palletiser.
Grain &feed millinG technoloGy
Feature Feature
This is done fully automatically and with-
out manual intervention.
Moreover, these systems allow fast error
diagnostics of the entire bagging line, which
slashes line downtimes and makes it easier
to familiarise new employees with bagging
operations.
Balanced warehouse logistics
The performance and cost-effectiveness
of a bagging line also depends on the
warehousing system applied, which must be
matched to the specific needs.
More and more, the method of direct
loadout straight from the bagging line is being
abandoned.
On the one hand, this is due to the high
bagging capacity required. On the other
hand, the direct linking of bagging and loa-
dout and the increasing number of loadout
variants with the related downtimes make
this former approach uneconomical.
An analysis of the plant-specific require-
ments is a prerequisite for selecting the
adequate warehousing concept, which must
also take account of the plant’s uptime and
therefore its profitability.
A number of warehouse variants are pos-
sible, which all have their specific advantages
and disadvantages.
Today, very many plants apply the block
storage method due to its low capital cost.
But it also has drawbacks: The first-in-
first-out (FIFO) approach is not possible; a
large surface area is needed, with poor space
utilisation; automatic inventory control is not
possible; the storage and retrieval capacity is
low; and the number of possible variants or
items is low.
Grain &feed millinG technoloGy
In addition, the
manpower costs of
a block storage sys-
tem are very high,
since several forklift
drivers are needed
simultaneously.
The drawbacks
of rack stor-
age systems are
similar to those
of block stor-
age installations,
though they do
allow FIFO oper-
ation to some
extent. They also
permit order-picking thanks to the access access to each individual item must be
they allow to individual items in combina- possible at any time.
tion with flow-rack or high-bay storage
systems. Over 100 years of experience
For many packing installations, a flow- Bühler AG is a global technology group
rack store will be found to be an adequate and a system partner for the supply of plant,
solution. equipment, and process know-how to the
Flow-rack storage systems offer the food processing industries. Buhler has been
following advantages: FIFO is possible; the supplying complete food processing plants
space utilisation rate is high; the capac- for over 100 years and bagging lines in all
ity and uptime are high; the manpower capacity ranges for more than 40 years,
requirement is low; the capital cost is especially for meeting the stringent standards
relatively low, with an excellent price-to- of the food processing industry.
performance ratio; and supply readiness
is optimal. Fully automated high-bay ware-
More InforMatIon:
houses are the Rolls Royces in the field of
Buhler Switzerland
warehousing.
But despite their outstanding advan- Uzwil
tages, they are too expensive and com- Switzerland
Tel: +41 71 9551111
plex for many plants. A high-bay storage Fax: +41 71 9556611
system is especially suitable if a very large Email: milling@buhlergroup.com
number of items must be stored and if
Terminology / A-Z listing / Products & Services
International Organisations / Country data sheets
Equipment guides, including Hammermills, Extruder
& Expander, Pellet Press & Storage.
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