Gem Pack adds FIBC discharger

London -- Gem Pack Foods Ltd has installed a new FIBC (flexible intermediate bulk container) discharger to support packing operations at its Dublin plant. The unit serves a Fawema machine with two feed points; one which requires product be delivered at a metered feed rate and the other with it’s own auger to regulate the flow from a mass transfer system.

The Irish company is both a contract packer and a provider of an extensive range of products - several of which are simply repacked from bulk supplies but many of which are own brand proprietary mixes. Key ingredients include sugar, in various forms from granulated to fine icing grades, rice and corn flour.

To meet growth in demand, Gem Pack Foods opted to have these key ingredients delivered in one-tonne FIBC’s rather than 25kg packs to take advantage of the benefits of bulk supplies.

Gem Pack Foods discharges around 350 tonnes of sugar a week plus all the rice and corn flour they use too. These products, and mixtures thereof - together with other ingredients, are packed in to a variety of packages ranging from 3kg in box bags down to single portion sachets. Much of the production is delivered to wholesalers and the large supermarket chains, with the remainder going for export.

The packing machine design means that only one feed point can be in operation at any time. Product feed to the packing head has to have a consistent flowability and has to be de-aerated within specified tolerances.

To deliver the products to the packer in the condition required, the company installed a Spiroflow Bulk Bag Discharger. The unit can connect to either a flexible screw conveyor, which delivers product at a metered rate or to a vacuum conveyor -- a mass transfer system. Each conveying system is mobile so that change-over between the two is a quick and easy operation.

As Pat Leamy, managing director of Powder Process Systems, confirms, “The challenge of this job was not the discharge of the products in question. For the Spiroflow Big Bag Discharger complete with integral ‘base massagers’ and ‘bag tensioning support arms’, this is a ‘walk in the park’.

“However, delivering the variety of sugars and other bulk ingredients to the packing machine in the condition specified was a different story. In the end, together with Spiroflow, who liased direct with the packing machine manufacturer, we concluded that there needed to be two methods of transferring discharged product to the appropriate feed point on the packing machine. The customer accepted our proposal and the system works to his entire satisfaction”.

The Spiroflow Bulk Bag Discharger is sited on a mezzanine floor within the main packing hall and, as a result, big bags are delivered to it by way of a pallet rather than a forklift truck.

The discharger is equipped with its own lifting beam and travelling hoist to facilitate the easy positioning of full bags into the discharger. The loops of each bag are attached to a lifting frame that ensures the bag is lifted squarely in to place. Once in place, bags sit on a substantial support dish whilst being stretched vertically by the compression springs within the side arms that support the lifting frame used to raise the bag.

The support dish houses the ‘base massagers’ that can be operated manually in the event of product being reluctant to discharge. The aperture in the support dish, through which the outlet spout of the bag passes, is surrounded by an elastic membrane that makes a seal with the base of the bag.

A containment cabinet below the support dish houses a spigot leading directly to the inlet of whichever conveyor is in position below. The neck of the big bag can be sealed to this spigot before the liner of the bag is untied. This ensures the dust-free transfer of the product into the conveyor and no contamination of the product from the outside of the bag or the operator.

The hopper that feeds the flexible screw conveyor is complete with an agitator to ensure a consistent flow of product into the screw and hence into the packing machine. The conveyor is three-metres long and raises product about a metre into a check sieve directly above one of the inlets of the packing machine.

The vacuum system collection hopper needs no agitator. The conveying distance is 6 metres and raises product to a height of three metres into the collection cyclone and then on into the packer by way of a rotary valve.