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BAGGING SYSTEMS

ACHIEVING INCREASED EFFICIENCY THROUGH DETAILED SPECIFICATION

by Imeco

he increasing application of automation

and technology in actual industry
have pushed all companies to apply
more efficient and specific production
systems. The requirements, a producer
is subjected to, became tighter in terms
of speed, assistance and quality. Every
end-line of production withstands to
this changes. Bagging technology is one
among the most important.
Bagging the final product is a heavy-duty process in every
powdery or granular process production plant. So automation is
highly recommended but, so far, not all the markets are adopting
this solution, for many reasons. In any case the bagging systems
are required to be as much flexible and accurate as possible,
considering the market destination and the personalisation
requested by every plant, considered its product, packaging and
market.

Finding applicable bagging systems

Packaging can obviously be considered as a marketing tool.

The surface of the bag, the type of closure and the material used;
with all of them allowing a company to add value themselves to a
unique and distinctive brand.
Several bagging systems are applicable depending on the
products and the reference market. Cement is world-wide packed
into valve bags as well as products that need low sanitation
requirements and, almost, no closure. FFS (Form Fill and Seal)
is often and mostly used for a very high speed production of food
62 | July 2016 - Milling and Grain

products; open-mouth bags are still the most widespread, because

of the designs many advantages, including accurate weights,
more product bulk weight and bag size flexibility as well as being
easy opening for the end customer.
For more than 30 years, IMECO has been a world leader in
production of weighing and bagging solutions for every kind
of powdery or granular products, in the food, chemical or
agriculture industry whatsoever.
Progress and technology drove industry to nearly abandon
the traditional jute or cotton bags and to replace them with
quite new materials such as plastic and paper bags. In terms of
ecological balance, contrary to what is known, the use of woven
plastic bags, when correctly recycled is preferred; since the
manufacturing of paper is very energy intensive. Considering
the minor utilisation of jute and cotton and considered the costly
process of paper production, plastic materials are the most
common in bagging systems all over the world, but a high variety
is present. To allow the maximum flexibility, IMECO developed
its automatic bagging systems able to handle all the available
combination of bags materials, such as PP woven, PP laminated,
PP woven with PE liner, PE, multi wall paper, coated paper, paper
with PE liner, paper with aluminum among others.
Choosing a bagging system means to opt for a manual or
automatic solution. This choice has to be made in a strict
relation with the producer needs considering his product, volume
production, destination market, bag quality and weight accuracy.

Bagging system performance limit variables

Manual bagging system performances are related to two simple

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variables: human limits the ability to place the bags properly
and the number of cycles that the scales above can reach. This
second variable depends on the specific characteristics of the
bagging product: granular, powder, pellet, mesh, flakes and so on.
Depending on the specific product, IMECO is able to provide
several feeding devices that work as fast as possible; whilst
maintaining the original features and quality of the product:
gravity feeder w/o servo for plastic granules, granular
fertiliser, grain, rice and sugar. Belt feeders can also be installed
for those materials that need to be handled carefully such as
animal feed, pellets or flakes. Screw feeders are used for powders
such as flour, feed pre-mixes or minerals; turbine feeder for cereal
flour. IMECO, generally, reached the maximum number of cycles
in bagging scales in the whole market.
Fully automatic bagging systems are typically preferred in
more industrialised areas and where labour costs or aggressive
environment suggest the investment in automation. Nowadays,
automatic bagging systems are able to achiever much higher
performances than manual bagging systems in terms of
production, speed and quality.
For more than 20 years now, IMECO has been on the market
with one of its first automatic bag placing solution and today is
still riding high. The ABP120 series have amazing performances
such as fully automatic bag size changeover, are designed to
handle almost all kinds of bag materials, dust tight bird beak
spout (1:4) with pre-dump option for high speed bagging and
maintenance free bag detection system on the filling spout, to
avoid wrong product discharge, are just a taste of its properties.

Sanitation is key

It often happens that automation follows many years of manual

systems in plants that are already in existence. Thats why

compactness is also as much important as many other features
-- sanitation for instance, with new labour laws forcing plants to
raise their environment standards.
In the food industry, sanitation is also mandatory, with a low
dust environment, correct design and proper dust aspiration
systems all meaning those in the industry now understand
that good performances are linked with all of the essential
qualifications that now exist in the automation industry.
The upstream process is one, among others, of the most
fundamental phases of the bagging system. Precision and lack of
dead rates highly increase the whole system efficiency. IMECO
systems achieve weighing with one of the lowest margin of error
on the market, using the technic of the pre-dumping in order to
guarantee a continuous flow, and moreover, a very high accuracy
in goods bagging.
Besides sanitation, we must spend a few of words discussing

Milling and Grain - July 2016 | 63

the international certification in weighing systems called MID

Measuring Instruments Directive obtained by IMECO over
two years ago. MID is a directive by the European Union, which
seeks to harmonise many aspects of legal metrology across all
member states of the EU, a very important point in a unified
market.

The importance of intuitive and easy to use software

Of course, also a reliable control system guarantees efficient

control of the bagging plant. We are talking about the fact that not
just the hardware must be heavy-duty but the software must be
intuitive and easy to use as well. The world market has changed
below different aspects and also the labor market changed itself.
The skills of the operating personnel must also be taken
into consideration and the frequent personnel turnover can
sometimes turn to be
as an handicap. Thats
why an easy-to-use
software with intuitive
control panel with touch
sensitive screen are as
much important as the
mechanical movements.
Electronics assists us by
improving our results.
However, if its not
applied properly, it can
become an obstacle that
is hard to overtake.
Just like modern smart
phones, that are usable
by children from a very young age, IMECO have developed
intuitive software that allows the client to set their machine by
themselves. Keeping the client on the leash is just not acceptable
anymore, this era has now ended. The market is simply too
crowded to operate in this way and we like clients to understand
that suppliers need to turn as a solutions-finders as soon as
possible to keep their market tight.
Open-mouth bags allow also several bag closing systems:
sealing, gluing, sewing or combined systems. Depending on
weight, volume and bag material a closing system could be
64 | July 2016 - Milling and Grain

more appropriate than another. For instance, if a high sanitation

is required combined system such as sewing and stitches is
preferred or pinch bag if paper material is used.

Technology must help us in our day-by-day work

Thinking about bagging doesnt mean to think just about

begging techniques; many thoughts have to be made before to
purchasing new equipment. As already wrote above, technology
must help us in our job day-by-day. For this reason, we should
keep an eye on automatic equipment as much as is possible; selfdiagnosis, for instance, is now readily available.
With these many features, specialists wont ever lose their
time again and you wont ever need to keep your plant stopped
because of malfunctions that you cannot diagnose. Your new
equipment will be the one that, almost like a real patient, tell you
what is not working properly and what should be the tuning to
apply in order to optimise you production plant. Its also just with
a very high standards of quality of the components that youll be
able to find a reliability that wont ever let you down.
High standard components are not just inside the machine but
are also outside too. Im talking about remote control assistance.
However, sometimes self-diagnosis isnt enough. For this reason,
video cameras can be installed inside the machine to allow the
vendor to assist its clients 24/7 and to attend and fine-tune the
settings even from many kilometres away.
However, if you are planning to buy an automation bagging
solution, it is not as immediate as you may think.

Increasing efficiency through intensive specification

Receiving the enquiry for a purchase sometimes put the supplier

in an uncomfortable position to press the potential client in order
to understand what it is that they really need. Many questions
have to be answered, such as bagging volume, discharging
elements, weighing systems, bag types (material and dimensions),
bag sealing options, palletising, storage logistics, etc.
All of these measurements are required if the equipment
provided is to enable a complete solution. A long-term plan is
also both mandatory and important, because machines will last
more than anyone of us, if designed, produced and assembled
properly.
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