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What NOT to overlook on form/fill/seal equipment projects

Here are a few areas that sometimes don’t receive sufficient attention on form/fill/seal machinery projects.

1. Integration of the bagger with the scale.
The scale and the bagger are not always from the same vendor, and frequently are not from the same country. Two of the larger scale manufacturers are in Japan, and the majority of baggers are made in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Australia. These pieces of equipment are usually integrated at the packager’s plant. Care must be taken to understand the “stack-up”, or the total vertical elevation of the scale and bagger, well in advance of installation.

Often, the scales are mounted to an overhead platform, and the bagger sits on the floor. Typically the platform is designed and erected prior to the arrival of the scale and bagger on-site. If the engineering is not done properly, machines don’t fit! If there is a metal detector placed between the scale and the bagger, that adds another layer of complexity in the design.

For fragile products (snack foods, cookies, etc.), minimizing the drop from the feed system to the scale to the bagger to the discharge conveyor is the key to good design. Also, if the bag is going into a tray that will sit on the retail shelf, ensure proper orientation of the bag exiting the bagger and prior to tray loading, so that the bag faces the right way at retail.

Regarding controls, the communication between the scale and the bagger is important. Does the scale tell the bagger it is ready with a charge, or does the bagger tell the scale it is ready to make a bag? There is also the downstream machine that needs to be ready for the bag to be sent.

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