RESPONDING to increasing corner-shop retailer demands for easy to handle multipacks of bulk food items, Pacepacker Services has launched a new Collator System which will quickly collate and place pre-packed items into an outer sack totalling up-to 25kg.
Often corner-shops and smaller outlet chains use large sacks as a way to contain and display bulky items including potatoes, animal feed and carrots, yet the process of packing pre-packed bags into outer sacks is a labour intensive operation.
Pacepacker has designed the standalone Collator System to maximize people’s ability to work with existing sack placing and sealing equipment. Capable of collating and packing up to 80 pre-packs into outer sacks per minute, the system overcomes common problems typically seen with other systems. Paul Wilkinson, Pacepacker’s Business Development Manager, explains: “We saw a gap in the market for a collator which would continuously support the pre-packed bulk goods as they were entering the outer sack. We found that many systems on the market did not control the fall of the product very well, which often results in pre-packs breaking through the bottom of the outer sack due to their weight and density. We have improved this part of the process by incorporating motorised support arms to control the descent of the pre-packed polybags into the outer sack, eliminating damage and waste to both product and pack.”
Pre-packed polybags of goods, weighing between 1 and 5kgs typically produced on FFS equipment, enter the system via an inclined elevator and are transported up to the holding doors of the Collator System. Once the desired quantity of bagged material has been detected by the system’s pre-programmed operating software, the conveyor pauses and the holding doors open for the bags to gently drop into an accumulation chamber and then into the outer sack waiting below. As the bags are released from the chamber to the sack, motorised arms control the descent accurately, smoothly and with minimal moving parts. The system can store multiple product recipes to accommodate numerous multi-pack product variations, either by weight or amount.
While the Collator System has the ability to work with most sack placing and sealing systems, it can also be integrated to work with Pacepacker’s T Series sack placers and award winning Total Bag Control (TBC) system, which accurately seals sacks with ultimate control enabling enhanced pack quality.
Pacepacker’s new Collator System offers an automated solution, reducing waste and labour costs, improving pack presentation and throughput speeds.
