STRAP n Animal feed supplier has improved efficiency in the bag The North Yorkshirebased animal feed specialist, W E Jameson & Son, supplies feed to farmers across the North of England. It offers a variety of compounds and blends for dairy, beef and sheep farmers, including soya, rapeseed meal, brewers grains, molasses and fodder beet. Previously, the company relied on manual labour to place sacks and bags onto a bagging system, but was having issues with this approach. It has therefore decided to install an automated bag-placing system in combination with an ABB palletising robot. The new equipment includes an automatic bag-stitcher and labeller, as well as the robot. It can handle up to ten bags per minute and its small footprint means that it could be installed in the limited space available, without affecting Jameson’s ability to meet production targets. The bag placer – a BP-600 system, supplied by the packaging machinery and robotic automation specialist, RMGroup – accepts sacks up to 950mm long. It uses a vacuum suction cup system to pick up the bags before transporting them on a chain belt, and opening them to allow paddle arms to present the bag to the filling head. The system can fill up to 25kg of animal feed into woven polypropylene or paper bags that then need to be stitched. It can also accept pre-made plastic bags. It has eradicated the previous bag presentation issues, resulting in a consistent flow of bags to the filling head. “This was a new piece to replace our old bagging plant, enabling us to release staff to do other jobs in the mill,” says Jameson’s Bob Prisk. “We also have plans to add the grass seed plant to the line and fully make use of the robot palletiser to stack the bags once filled.” The BP-600 bag-placer is designed to be integrated with an existing bag-filler, or used in combination with a palletiser. “Essentially it’s a starter system for those looking to automate their manual bag-placing process which, in turn, helps increase staff productivity – as is the case with W E Jameson,” explains RMGroup’s sales director, Ed Pugh. n A Yorkshire animal feed specialist has replaced a previous manual system for placing sacks into a bagging system, by an automated system, including a palletising robot, which has improved bagfilling efficiencies and allowed staff to be redeployed. W E Jameson’s new bag-placing machine has solved issues with its previous manual operations and allowed it to redeploy staff
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