A construction material supply company in Monterrey, MX wanted to install a valve bag filling system for various grades of calcium carbonate into valve bags from 25-50 KG (55-110 Lb.) at a rate of 400 bags per hour. The client was looking for a system solution to convert bulk bags of material into 25-50 KG (55-110 Lb.) bags. The target rate for the system was 9,000-13,000 KG (20,000-30,000 Lb.).

Valve Bag Filling System for Calcium Carbonate

The system CBE designed included a ground-level bulk bag unloading hopper that discharged into an incline screw conveyor. The screw conveyor inclined the material to a surge hopper above a Model 830 Paddle Flow Impeller Packer, which packed out the material at a rate of 6-8 bags per minute, dependent upon product grade. Filled bags were automatically discharged onto a specially designed receiving conveyor and transferred on an incline through a bag flattener that conditioned each bag prior to delivering it to a palletizing station at the end of the packaging line.  The system required two operators; one to place empty bags on the filling machine and a second to palletize the filled bags at the end of the line.

Designed for Productivity and Control

Each filling sequence was initiated automatically by a sensor at the spout of the filling machine when the operator spouted a bag on the machine; no button push was required. The bag would then automatically fill to a pre-determined weight selected by the operator. The filling machine had an integrated weighing scale, which worked in combination with a single PLC-based control package. The weighing controls were specially designed for valve bag filling applications and featured a gain-in-weight totalizing display. The controls were designed with the ability to communicate weight data to a printer or central management control system.

A pneumatic bag clamp sped up the placement and removal of the bags by eliminating the need for the operator to clamp and unclamp each bag from the filling spout at the beginning and end of each bag fill.

The flow of material was automatically started and stopped by a multi-position pinch valve, called a pinch tube cutoff.  The system controls signaled the pinch valve to reduce flow at a pre-programmed weight. The pinch valve would actuate to reduce product flow before closing at the end of each weigh cycle to prevent overfilling of the product.

The valve bag filling system for calcium carbonate provided a high level of productivity and changeover to different product grades was effortless with the integrated digital weighing scale, by which an operator could easily key in target weight with a couple of keystrokes.