Silica Sand - turn key bagging system
Client
Adwan Chemical Industries Company is a private Saudi based company established in 1991. Adwan Chemical Industries produces high grade silica based minerals from a number of plants supplying a wide range of industries. Details of ACIC products and served applications can be viewed at the ‘Products’ page. ACIC operates several manufacturing facilities in the Middle East and North Africa. ACIC products are sold to 1250 clients in over 30 countries serving over 40 applications.
Adwan have bought several systems from Webster Griffin with the objective of increasing their production ouput.
Challenge
Growth in demand from India and China for their ultra-fine chemicals meant that Adwan needed to dramatically increase their processing capacity and achieve greater efficiency through economies of scale. Therefore, they decided to invest $20m in a new plant to quadruple their throughput.
Adwan defined specific performance deliverables from their new packaging systems:
- Weight Accuracy – Adwan’s customers use their products as ingredients in batch production processes, therefore, bags of consistent weight are essential
- Adwan wanted to reduce the cost of packaging consumables (bags) and therefore wanted minimum wastage
- Pack & Pallet Integrity – their products needed to arrive in perfect condition – they are shipped across continents by road, rail and sea, therefore, bags must not leak and pallet loads must be stable and securely wrapped
- Adwan’s customers specify the exact grade of silica sand that they require, therefore, the bagging systems needed to be versatile - able to pack milled products with a wide ranging particle size distribution
- Proposed equipment must be proven to handle the abrasive silica based product and run reliably in an inhospitable desert location where maximum daytime temperatures reach 50 degrees centigrade, and there is a huge drop during the night to 5-6 degrees
Solution
After thoroughly assessing Adwan's new production needs, Webster Griffin recommended a complete turn-key bagging system including Big Bag filling, Form Fill Seal bagging and Robot Palletising.
The new packing complex included three high speed bulk bag filling lines – each incorporating Webster Griffin’s unique bag suspension concept and filled bag transport conveyors. Adwan already had four Webster Griffin big bag systems in operation and appreciated their robust technology and reliability.
Webster Griffin’s solution comprised of:
- Three high speed big bag filling systems and bag handling conveyors. The machines were designed with suspension filling to give the system more adaptability for handling different bag weights and sizes
- One fully automatic Form Fill Seal bagging machine for 25kg bags
- Two robot bag palletising systems each combined with fully automatic pallet stretch wrappers
Replacing the existing valve sack bagging system with Form Fill Seal bagging was recommended by Webster Griffin for these important advantages
- Cost savings on every bag due to the lower cost of FFS plastic bags
- Increased productivity with Webster Griffin’s Form Fill Seal bagging machines packing twice as fast as valve sack bagging
- Improved product security through dust-free bagging and robust plastic impervious film
An intelligent robot palletising system was ideal for the matching the pace of the high speed upstream bagging lines. The Okura robot programming software is second to none for adaptibility and ease of use when making modifications to existing palletising programmes or building new ones.
Result
Adwan Chemicals’ new silica packing plant is up and running and achieving the cost savings and improvements in productivity anticipated giving Adwan assurance they can fulfil the demands of their customers well into the future.
Some important improvements were:
- Dust-free big bag filling at a throughput of up to 25 - 30 big bags an hour with automatic adjustment for different bag sizes and weights
- 25kg bags packed at 900 bags/ hour provided a dramatic improvement in productivity.
- 25kg of kiln dried silica sand automatically filled into a very robust PE/ plastic bags suitable for export to adjacent Gulf states and globally.
- Neat and organised waterproofed pallets of their 25kg bags ready for dispatch to Adwan’s customers throughout the world
- Increased automation allows labour to be freed up for other production tasks
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