Kiln Dried Sand - Form Fill Seal
Client
Mansfield Sand Company Limited have been in operation for over 170 years and develop and produce high quality silica sand based surfacing solutions for sport, landscaping and recreation. Bagging operations at Mansfield Sand have needed to develop rapidly with the increase in demand arising from both sales success and legislative changes over the past 10 years. https://mansfield-sand.co.uk/
Challenge
With shifting market requirements meaning Mansfield Sand did not have the production capability to pack 25 kg bags at sufficient speed to satisfy all their supply requirements. Mansfield Sand enlisted Webster Griffin to find a way to expand the production capabilities in the face of the following challenges:
- Limited space was available to house both the old system and the new equipment side by side. Mansfield wanted the option of running either line, eliminating downtime during commissioning and providing an alternative route through which to process old stocks of sacks. This was achieved with cunning use of angled powered conveyors and a new pick up station for the robot.
Other important must haves were:
- Double the throughput of the old line
- Reduce labour allocation for the old 40kg line
- The capability to pack 25kg at a high throughput with minimal input from operators
- Automation of conveyors to achive maximum throughput
Solution
The solution was built from these elements:
- CV3080 Form Fill Seal bagging machine capable of producing a consistent throughput of 1000 bags an hour
- Okura high speed A1600 robot palletiser with OXPA-QmV “easy-teach” software capable of a throughput of up to 720 bags/hour
- Mechanical bag belt conveyors ensuring consistent flow of production
- Okura standard bag hand
- Volumetric dosing system suitable for handling dried sand
- One mild steel support frame
- Impulse sealing system using hydraulic pressure
- PE cell for film registration
- Control system with colour touch screen
- Cylinder to eject the bag onto the belt conveyor
- Forming tube with rubber liner for the 25 Kg bags
- Micro-perforator
- Additional forming tubes with rubber liners for the 12.5 Kg & 40 Kg bags
- One rotating support frame for three additional forming tubes to reduce the time required when changing from one bag width to another
- Electric hoist to assist with reel changes
- One shaking device for the tilting saddle to settle the contents inside the bag
Result
Benefits of the new system included the following:
- Reduction of demands on personnel from 6 people supporting the system per shift to 3, easing up labour for other production tasks
- Improved quality of bags going through the Form Fill Seal machine producing full bags which hold their condition during packing, storage and transportation
- The introduction of new FFS bags at 2-3p each meant a reduction in costs
- Duration of film reel changes is now down to 10 minutes, two to three times as day
- Simplification of the production process with manual palletising
- Increase in production throughput to up to 1000 bags an hour.
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