Automatic baggers improve line efficiencies

Blair’s switch from boxing to bagging reduces labor costs and simplifies packing operations.

Bag forming. The bags are formed in-line from a 2.5-mil thick polyester film.
Bag forming. The bags are formed in-line from a 2.5-mil thick polyester film.

Catalog clothing company Blair Corp., headquartered in Warren, PA, operates a major distribution center in Irvine, PA. The center had been using two box-making machines, requiring 11-12 workers per machine, to process 1ꯠ-1겨 packages per hour per machine. Much of the machinery had been in operation since the 1970’s and 1980’s, and packaging upgrade enhancements were needed to keep pace with Blair’s growing business.

As part of an overall automation upgrade in 2003, Blair installed four Amotek Model X2 bag form/fill/seal machines from Optima Machinery Corp. (www.optima-usa.com). Frank Durante, assistant maintenance manager for Blair’s Irvine distribution center, says, “The X2’s were the newest machines available to meet our needs, and personnel from Optima were very helpful. They had 100% involvement from machinery installation in January 2003 through when we went live with the baggers in March 2003.”

Bagging machine operation

Utilizing a mono-layer, 2.5-mil thick, co-extruded polyester roll stock film from Pac National, Inc. (www.pac.com), each X2 machine automatically forms the bags and moves them into the machine’s feeding station. Single and/or multiple items of apparel, as well as any accompanying inserts such as packaging slips, coupons, and catalog materials, are placed manually onto an infeed conveyor and travel past a photo-eye, which signals the machine to move a bag into position for automatic product insertion.

The final item which is placed in the infeed bucket is the customer’s invoice with bar-coded information. The bucket then passes underneath a bar-code reader and pulls the proper shipping information/

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