About Silica Sand
Silica sand is a mixing and surfacing product that provides structure to everything from floors to roofing shingles. Bathgate Silica Sand has manufactured silica sand products for almost every industry imaginable. Robot palletisier
Apart from selling it for industrial and foundry purposes, they also sell it for horticultural and equestrian use, and to homes or schools needing play sand.
Why Did Bathgate Silica Sand Want To Replace Their Old Bagging Plant?
Every day, Bathgate Silica Sand quarries, processes and distributes thousands of kilograms of sand. Having been in business for decades, they outgrew their Congleton plant and made plans to move to a new facility in Cheshire. They decided to improve their packaging machinery setup at the same time and approached Webster Griffin for an upgraded solution. It would need to quickly and accurately bag kiln dried/top dressing/grits/moist and wet sand products.
What Solution Did Bathgate Silica Sand Require?
Bathgate Silica Sand wanted a new production system capable of bagging sand products into pillowed or gusseted bags in 3 smaller sizes (10kg, 20kg and 30kg) and 2 bigger sizes (500kg to 1500kg).
They needed a turnkey system that would automatically form whatever size bag was required before filling and stacking it. It would need to do this around the clock and be automated to free up their workers for other tasks.
What Solution Did Webster Griffin Design And Install For Bathgate Silica Sand?
After a planning session involving the Bathgate Silica Sand team, Webster Griffin proposed a system integrating a Velocity Vertical Form Fill Seal (FFS) machine, Okura robot palletizer and bag handler and Uniwrap automatic pallet stretch wrapper.
The FFS machine starts by unwinding plastic film from a preloaded roll. It forms the film into a gusset or pillow shaped tube designed to accommodate a pre-arranged volume. The bag is then filled via a high speed dosing system before being sealed and flattened. At the same time, the FFS machine automatically forms the next bag.
Once this process is done the Okura machine picks up bags and places them on the pallet. The machine is equipped with 100 pre-installed palletising patterns and a touch screen allowing operators to choose how they palletize each stack.
What Was The Result Of Commissioning The System For Bathgate Silica Sand?
The most obvious benefit to the new system was an increased output of 1000 10kg or 25kg bags per hour.
Thanks to the system’s flexibility it could quickly switch between different bag sizes and pallet formats.
The automatic system freed up workers to perform other essential tasks. The advanced system required less maintenance, reducing downtime which in turn lowered the businesses costs over time.
Ultimately, Bathgate Silica Sand was more than able to meet rising consumer demands with shorter response times. As they reduced the bagged products held in stock, they also freed up valuable floor space. Customers got their orders quickly and efficiently, keeping them satisfied and loyal. It's helped establish their reputation of being one of Europe's fastest and most versatile sand product manufacturers.
To Find Out More
About Form Fill Seal Machines