Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering the production equipment, with products having medium- ice-melting the coarse particles andproducts the having fertilizer particlesfrom 1.5 to ranging 2.2 millimeters. After a product is made, it’s conveyed to one of four packaging and palletiz- ing lines. Untilcluded recently, three automated lines and these one in- manual line. Each automated line re- quired one while operator, the manual line required four. To an ice-meltingproduct using or the fertilizer manual packaging line, an operator firstbagger’s PLC and accessed entered the the appro- priate bag-weight setting. The PLCmonitored the bagger’s duplex scale and regulated a feed bulk-and-dribble gate to control productscale. During operation, one flow operator to the manually placed empty onbagger’s the bag-filling spout, anotheroperator moved the full bags through a bag sealer, and two operators atend the of the line the manually palletized bags.

C Grow Inc., Eau Claire, Wis., aproduces line complete of fer- weed,tilizer, and insect control

Case history h ihsedbaggerThe can high-speed handle up to 25 bags per depending minute, on the bag size and and material, control its sys- single-scale integrated bagtem accurate provides weights. reliably akgn n altzn the andPackaging palletizing products The company makesproducts in seasonal campaigns, pro- the variousducing ice-melting products from fall through late winter and fertilizer and control products from earlythrough spring fall.through May, the From company operates two September 10-hour shiftsweek, while a the day, rest of 5 the year dayserates it op- a a typical 40-hourproducts are abrasive and week. to corrosive The products and products ice-melting for professional and retail markets. The company packages most of the prod- ucts in various-sized bags, which are then palletizedstretch-wrapped for transport and to cus- tomers.Aboutayearandahalfago,the company that determined it needed to to efficiency keep production improve up with customer ever-increasing de- mand, so it to decided its automate one remainingmanualpackagingline. E

A a automates company line topackaging improve and reduceproduction labor requirements. inefficiencies away line melts packaging Automated Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering “We had high turnover on the manual line because it was physically intense.” ment suppliers has reallyover dwindled the last few years. However,the of remaining suppliers in the indus- try, one really stood out,them so to I get called more informationtheir about equipment.” Thissupplierdesignsandmanufactures pal- packaging, automated customized dosing,letizing, and stretch-wrapping equipment and systems for handling drybulksolids.Nandorytalkedwiththe who sales manager, traveled supplier’s totheEauClaireplanttoshowthecom- pany several videos of the automated equipment in action and estimate the production rate for each bag sizecompanyproduces. the The company liked thenumbers, production so Nandory traveled to the supplier’s manufacturing facility in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, to learnmore about the equipment. “After the plant tour, I sent the supplier —mier Tech Pre- Systems — some product and empty bags so they could validate the production numbers for us,” says Nandory. “The testing showedtheir that equipment couldproducts and handle bag our sizes atlated rates. the We calcu- also learned that their equipment is operating in other plants in our industry and they have aexperience lot of handling productsours, so we like decided to an purchase au- tomated bagger andpalletizer.” an automated and went to the Pow- PBE, The high-level palletizer can stack up to 35 and pattern, bag-layer bags its PLC per can minute be using to programmed a handle a 5- range of bag sizes and patterns. stacking The equipment manufacturersupplied the EC that Grow’s three old au- tomated lines noNandory longer began exists, searching for so mated auto- packagingequipment and palletizing on thelooked Internet. through industry trade “I maga- also zines, like der Show inequipment,”he says. “What I Chicago found is that to the number look of automated equip- at idn anFinding solution automated In early 2008, the company decided to eliminate the line and upgradeautomated to an one. “Sincehad we three automated lines,”says already Nan- dory, “we knew what theings labor would be and sav- that we’d be able to reduce injuries, improve production efficiency, and produce more prod- ucts to meet our customers’needs.” According to RandyGrow Nandory, plant and EC production manager, operating the manual packaging line “Wepackagewas the labor-intensive. products in everything fromfifty-pound ten- to bags, with the majoritybeing bags,”he fifty-pound says. “We had high turnover on the manual line because it was physically intense.caused It some ergonomic issuesrelated and injuries, which were minimal but still needed to be reduced.” rbeswithProblems the manual line packaging Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering mrvn theImproving packaging operation Since installing the automated bagger and palletizer, the companycreased has the in- plant’s productionciency by effi- 20 percent. “We can switch the line over to a different bagless size in than tenlonger minutes, have to stop and the lineoperators we to during rotate no a production run,” says also “We’ve Nandory. decreased our labor requirements byfive seventy- percent, going from four opera- tors on the manual line to justthe one automated line. on And we’ve seen a decrease in injuriesturnover and because the employee automated line theeliminated issues ergonomic asso- ciated with manuallymany large handling bags. With the so exception of placing empty bags in the bag mag- azine, very there’s little physical labor anymore.” involved The automated packaging equipment is easy for the operators to company’s Since installing the automated bagger and palletizer, the company has increased the plant’s production efficiency by 20 percent. From the the checkweigher, conveyor moves the bag to the where palletizer, the palletizer’s twin-belt bag-turning system turns and orients the bag in the appropriate preprogrammed pattern. Each bag size has a different stacking pattern, and the palletizer alternates the stacking pattern of eachensure layer stability. to The bag exits the sealing system and an in-line bag turner lays it down bot- tom first onmoves a it belt through conveyor thewhich flattens bag the bag flattener, before that it’s con- veyed across the checkweigher. The line’s reject system removes any bag outside the preset accuracy range, en- suring that only on-spec bags are put on the . ntligthe packaging Installing equipment In late October 2008, the automated bagger and palletizer arrivedcompany’s plant along at with the ancillary equipment that included several belt conveyor sections, a bag flattener, a checkweigher, and a bag rejecttem. sys- In earlyplier’s November, the technicians sup-packaging commissioned equipment, installedthe the line for startup,company’s operators and how trained to operate the and everything. troubleshoot To bag a product using the new auto- mated packaging line,first an loads operator the empty-bag magazinewith the appropriate bags. The opera- tor accesses the bagger’scalls up PLC an appropriate recipe and for fill- ing the bags, and PLCpalletizer’s and then calls up the accesses same the recipe, which tells the palletizerstacking the pattern to use when arrang- ing the bags. After the operator starts the packagingpickup line, unit lifts the an bagger’s emptythe bag empty-bag magazine. from The empty bag is straightened and placedthe dust-tight onto filling spout. A settling device helps deaeratewhile the the product bagfilled is bag is being transferred to the outfeed filled. whichconveyor, moves The it to the bag- sealing system. the typical layout requiring about 295 inches by 222 inchesand of at least 181 floorspace inches of headroom. A PLC with a user-friendly operator interface shows stored recipes that an operator canchanging the quickly bag size and palletizing accesspattern. The palletizer for can make bag layers with dimensions from 37 by 37 to 54 by 54loads inches up and to 600 can pounds3,000 handle per pounds layer or perletizer pallet. automatically The places pal- pallets empty and slip sheets, and can easily handle bagspounds. weighing EC Grow’s palletizer is pro- upgrammed to to 110 stack bags weighing 12 to 51 pounds, most of which are lami- nated and preprinted for retail. The AP-435 high-speed, high-level palletizer automaticallyciently and effi- stacksminute using up a to 5-bag-layer 35The pattern. palletizer is bags configured to handle per standard 40-by-48-inch pallets, and its can magazine empty-pallet accom- modate a pallet stack up to 90tall inches or up toletizer’s 900 modular design pounds. adapts The torange a of pal- layout configurations, with reading. The bagger’s PLC has a user- friendly touchscreen operator interface that allows easy troubleshooting and error code The bagger is powered by TEFC (to- tally enclosed fan-cooled) electrical motors and uses ancontrol Allen-Bradley system that’sNEMA 12 cabinet. The PLC bagger’s housed inhas a a touchscreen user-friendly oper- ator interface that allows easybleshooting trou- and error code reading, and its self-diagnostic softwareemergency has stop interlocks to ensure operator safety during operation. The bagger’s integrated single-scale con- trol system consistently provides ac- curate material weighments, and its multiple-stack bag magazine allows fast reloading andchangeovers. quick bag-size The equipment automated The PTK-1700 high-speedbags bagger granular or powdered materials, including fertilizers, rock salt, miner- als, chemicals, foods,feeds, into and open-mouth animal polypropy- lene, , or bagsrates at up to 25pending bags on the per bag minute, size and material. de- After a bag is filled, the bagger trans- fers it to an automatedsystem. The bag-sealing bagger’s modular plat- form can be to configured suit various andapplications, its typical layout re- quires about 154.5 inches by 199.75 inches of and floorspace 101 inches of headroom. Because the bagger han- dlesabrasiveandcorrosiveproducts,it has all Type 316 stainless steel mate- rial and contact surfaces fasteners. Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering PBE PBE Bookstore. You Powder and Bulk PBE s Article comprehensive s Web site, www.powderbulk Find more information on this PBE’ Premier Tech Systems, Rivière-du-Loup, QC 418-868-8324 www.premiertechsystems.com Engineering’ .com, and in books availableWeb site on in the the topic in articles listed under “Bagging and packaging” in Index in the December 2008 issue and at Note: can also purchase copies of past articles at www.powderbulk.com. According to Nandory, whenever the company has had annew issue packaging line, with the the supplier has been very responsive. “They’ve been really good aboutand communicating working with us throughoutwhole the process,”he says. “They have a project manager for every and project, they answered all ofTheir our engineers listened questions. to our needs and made modifications just forapplication. our Since we’ve beenning run- the line,problems with we it. In haven’t fact, we saw such hada any difference in performance thatpurchased we another automated pack- aging line from the supplier to replace one of our old automated lines and in- stalled it last August.” use. “After hitting theeverything start button, ismated,” pretty says Nandory. much “Thewalk auto- PLCs you through all the stepscalling when up a recipe; youmess it really up.” can’t