Nowadays, they serve a large proportion of farmers in the Czech and Slovak Republics, but also export their products to Poland, Romania, Croatia, and Ukraine.
They produce approximately 50 different formulas every day which requires frequent changeovers and increases the demand for clean technologies. Therefore, the company needs special equipment to avoid endangering the health or life of animals.
“Up until the end of the 1990s, we were using valve bad fillers that were not suitable for frequent changeovers in our production,” says Martin Vit, the Production Manager. “In 2003, when we were actively looking for the right packaging equipment for our needs, we chose the bagging and palletizing line from Chronos Richardson. We especially liked the unique bottom-up filler technology which offered bag filling via a vertical auger and was allowed to fully empty and clean the equipment. This significantly reduces the risk of contamination with another product.”
MIKROP CEBIN used Chronos Richardson’s machines for over 16 years, and it has become a key technology in the factory due to its unique features. The decision to innovate the entire manufacturing process two years ago, has led the company to use high-quality packaging equipment from Premier Tech, with whom they have had many years of good experience. Quality packaging equipment is the beating heart of this production line because quality, flexibility, and food safety are the main priorities.
This time, they decided to install two OML-1030 BF bottom-up bagging machines in order to eliminate the preparatory packing delays and achieve the optimal performance of the production line in its entirety. These baggers are problem-free, residue-free, and dust-free packaging machines that handle different sizes of bags according to the requirements of our customers, which allows the company to be flexible on the animal feed market and to be leaders in the Czech Republic. After securing the bag, the bag is released from the tube and slowly drops down. The bagger first performs the rough weighing, then the fine weighing, and finally fills up the fine batch where it can be adjusted down to a few grams.
“When choosing the Premier Tech packaging system, the quality of the bag stacking on the pallet was very important for us,” says Dusan Drapal, the CEO of the company. “Therefore, we went with Premier Tech Chronos and their palletizing equipment.”
The well-filled bag passes through the X-ray, where it is checked for metallic particles impurities, then it is transferred on the conveyor and enters the palletizer. The palletizing production rate is adapted to the production line and to the hourly batch that they are running at this moment in order to increase the overall productivity of the factory. Depending on the type of material, its coarseness and bulk density, the average production rate for one bagger is 300 bags per hour, which has boosted the performance of the entire company.
“Thanks to the Premier Tech Chronos baggers, we were able to switch from a three-shift to two-shift operation,” explains Tomas Odehnal, the Head of Production. “Furthermore, batch production has been simplified. Previously, two and a half tons were being produced and now the yield is three tons. So, we do more work and we do it faster. The Chronos baggers and amazing because they are low-dust emission. “
Every time new technologies are installed, there are always minor complications – and it was not different this time. This project was carefully planned for a very long time. Yet it was necessary after the installation to make a few minor adjustments to the machines.
“We were very pleased with the approach of the Premier Tech service team, which always responded quickly to the identified issues and continuously addressed and solved them,” says Martin Vit. “When installing the Premier Tech Chronos baggers, their technicians were on-site with us. They were very accommodating, helping us with some issues, they tuned the machine and when they left, the machine was perfectly tuned.”
According to Mr. Drapal, the years of experience with Premier Tech in operating the previous baggers proved to be useful when they installed the new bottom-up fillers and they were very satisfied with the service from Premier Tech, the experienced people and good technical support.
The return investment on such equipment lies precisely in the satisfaction of the customers of the company with the speed, the quality and, last but not least, the product value. It is not very common in Czech Republic to install such sophisticated and high-end equipment. However, MIKROP CEBIN is primarily concerned with product safety and, therefore, they were not worried about this investment. It is easier than it used to be. The machines work perfectly. And it will make the production operations easier in the future.
“I would recommend Premier Tech’s packaging equipment to anyone who manufactures various product types and who needs high accuracy bagging for their customers,” says the CEO of the company, Dusan Drapal.
