The use of bulk bags has expanded rapidly in recent years as more and more companies with bulk material needs have sought to take advantage of the savings they can potentially offer. There are many different bagging machines using custom configurations to package many kinds of products. These products can range from agricultural products like feed, corn, and seed to chemical and industrial powders like barite, gypsum, and graphite.
When tasked with selecting the right equipment to handle your packaging process, there are three main areas to consider. First, what style of package is suitable for the product? Second, what characteristics does the product have? Finally, what performance criteria are required of this particular process?
The types of bagging machines are:
Bulk bags, also known as flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs), are handy for transporting bulk materials.
Bulk bag filling systems, or bulk bag loading systems, are engineered for bulk material processing and packaging applications requiring a high-performance operation. Reliability and repeatable duty cycles, rates, accuracy, and equipment effectiveness are essential.
The bulk bag filling structure securely holds the bulk bag during the filling phase without the dispersion of powders into the environment.
Loading bulk bags can be challenging, and filling them by hand is complex and can lead to spills. Therefore specialized automated filling machines often become necessary to get the work done quickly, effectively, and efficiently.
Different bulk bag loading systems include:
A bulk bag unloader is a system that is engineered to safely and effectively unload large bags. Bulk bag unloaders are commonly known as bulk bag dischargers, big bag dump stations, big bag discharge stations, or FIBC dischargers. A bulk bag unloader is a stand-alone system that provides a convenient, safe, and dust-free handling and discharging of bulk bags.
A typical bulk bag unloader could be divided into six parts, namely:
How does emptying a bulk bag work?
The simplest method of discharging bulk bags is to let gravity do the work by lifting the bag over the desired discharge area, opening the discharge spout, and letting in the flow. While this is a simple and inexpensive method, it isn’t easy to control product flow from the bag.
Intermediate bulk containers, also known as IBC tank, IBC tote, or pallet tanks, are industrial-grade containers engineered to handle, transport, and store liquids, solids, and more. IBC tanks can be divided into two main categories: flexible IBCs and rigid IBC’s.
IBC containers are usually made of plastic, steel, or stainless steel and feature cages or bases designed for easy use with material handling vehicles. Many intermediate bulk container designs allow the container to be collapsed and folded for compact storage.
Flexible IBCs
Flexible IBCs are most often made of thick woven strands of oriented polypropylene, either coated or uncoated, and typically measure around 45–48 inches in diameter and vary in height.
Rigid IBCs
Rigid IBCs are stackable, reusable containers with an integrated pallet base mount that delivers forklift and pallet jack maneuverability. These containers can be made from metal, plastic, or composite construction of the two materials.
Powder filling is a process used in different industries to fill up the containers such as vials and bottles with powder particles. Dry powder filling bunging machines are used because it is challenging to fill these containers using bare hands or old technology. The role of this powder filler is to fill up the receptacle without wasting any powder substance accurately. Most industries like pharmaceuticals and food industries use it when it comes to covering the powder filling procedure in production.
Powder filling machines are essential in filling a wide variety of free-flowing and non-free-flowing powdered or granulated products.
Powder fillers help various industrial sectors depending on what application is attached to them. Essentially, powder fillers can fill any powder product.
Some of the common industries include:
This Technology Zone offers an insight into the latest innovations in packaging and bagging system design.
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