Sugar - Big Bag Filling
Client
Tate & Lyle Sugars were founded in 1878 and have been cane sugar industry leaders for more than 160 years, supplying high quality sugar to consumers, food and drink manufacturers, the pharmaceutical industry and restaurants and cafes. https://www.tateandlylesugars.com/
Tate & Lyle Sugars commissioned Webster Griffin to supply a high speed Big Bag weighing, filling and conveying system for granulated sugar.
Challenge
The Tate & Lyle refinery produces sugar 24 hours a day. Webster Griffin had to accommodate this continuous stream of refined sugar and provide around the clock consistent 24-hour bagging, flexibly handling several bag sizes and weights from 400kg to 1500kg.
- Guaranteed throughput of 25 bags per hour, 24 hours per day
- One-man operation - covering slip sheet application, bag placing, bag neck closing and ticket application tasks
- High weighing accuracy- online check weighing of every bag on a DTI approved scale
- Food Grade hygienic construction – complying with food industry standards
- Versatility - easily adapted for different bag sizes and weights
- Handling of both new and reconditioned pallets
- Automatically adjustable for 3 unusual pallet sizes – including 1200 x 1000 GKN - CHEP Blue Packer (used in UK), a square 1100 x 1100 pallet and an unusual 1143 long x 914 wide export pallet
- Heavy duty and compact construction – to fit in the constrained space available
- Automatic pallet magazine with 15 pallet capacity
- Integrated metal detection facility
Solution
Having analysed Tate & Lyle’s requirements, Webster Griffin proposed a versatile, high speed FIBC big bag weighing, filling and conveying system.
- X3 IBC-PF2 Filling Station
- X1 IBC-PF4 Filling Station
- Metal Detection – monitoring the falling sugar and raising an alarm and initiating abort cycle when contamination is detected
- Heated and Insulated Hopper above the filling station to provide a consistent weight accuracy
- Auto weigh-fill cycle - the telescopic spout is lowered to a convenient height for the operator to apply an empty bag onto filling machine
- One man operation - as the bag is conveyed out of the filling station, the operator fits the next bag onto the machine and initiates auto weigh-fill cycle
- Dedicated bag labelling – in the form of a 'passport' ticket displaying the actual weight and time of bag filling
- Automatic standard pallet magazine with a weight capacity of 400kg
- Series of pallet conveyors where filled bags are accumulated
- Food Grade and Heavy-Duty construction – stainless steel product contact parts and epoxy paint finish
Result
Following Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) at Webster Griffin’s headquarters, the system has been installed in Silvertown, UK. The solution offered the following benefits.
- Stable and compact bags at an hourly throughput of 20-25 x 1000kg or 30–35 x 500kg bags per hour
- Reduced labour costs - only a single operator required
- Flexible pallet system – handles three unconventional PF pallet sizes
- Enhanced Quality Assurance procedure – WDPS software stores production and customer info on databases which can be cross-referenced in order to provide accurate throughput info and bag-by-bag traceability (according to bag number)
- Efficient modular design – this enabled Webster Griffin to adopt a “building block” approach, eliminating the need for prototype design. The only non-standard item is automatic pallet centring device
- Flexible, adaptable system to accommodate future innovation – the PF range has the scope to fill drums and tote bins as well as bags
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