Powder filler is instantly satisfying

Servo-driven dual-auger 30-station rotary filler at Food Concept Developers, Inc. runs multiple canister sizes of instant cappuccino and other dry powder mixes.

Food Concept Developers, Inc. (www.fcd-inc.com), Elgin, IL, is a contract manufacturer of specialty dry powder mixes. It also produces a line of dry powdered products under its own brand names, including Victorian Inn? Powdered Beverages, which is a full line of flavored cappuccinos and hot chocolates; Perfect Servings? instant soups, instant cereals, flavored creamers, cold beverages and flavored teas; Herico Hispanic beverages; and Cool Caf? iced beverages.

Housed in a 120,000-sq-ft facility, Food Concept Developers services all classes of trade, including retail-grocery, clubstores, mass merchandisers, vending and convenience store distribution, foodservice, and office supply stores. Most recently the company has entered the trade class of home improvement centers. Food Concept Developers recently installed a new packaging line featuring a servo-driven dual-auger AFI 30-station rotary filler rated at 250 containers/min from All-Fill, Inc. (www.all-fill.com) and an All-Fill Alpha CW-10 Series checkweigher. The filler is controlled by an Allen-Bradley (http://www.allen-bradley.com) PLC and incorporates five servo drives from Yaskawa Electric America, Inc. (www.yaskawa.com).

Codes are applied to the bottom of cans, which are conveyed upside down, by an ink-jet printer.

"I?m very happy with All-Fill,? says Food Concept Developers president Bryan Real. "Everything didn?t work out exactly as I had planned, and they tweaked things that I needed to keep the project moving. They are one of the best companies I?ve ever worked with.? Real was also very laudatory of Rich May, president of Richpak Machinery, Inc., who represents All-Fill, and Don Fochs, Automation and Design Concepts, who provided consulting on this project.

Two can diameters

The line runs two different diameter spiral-wound paperboard cans from Sonoco Products Co. (www.sonoco.com): a 401 for 1 lb of product, and a 502 for 2, 3, 5 and 6 lb of product. During Packaging Digest?s visit, the line was running 3-lb canisters of its own Victorian Inn cappuccino mix.

To start the operation, a worker pushes the paperboard cans, which are supplied shrink-wrapped on pallets, onto a conveyor manually. The cans transfer onto a cable conveyor that transports them overhead into the filling room. Flat conveyors were supplied by New London Engineering Co. (nleco) and cable conveyors by King Brothers, Inc. Cans drop through a twister that inverts them, after which they pass through a cleaner from Confab Systems, Inc. that blasts them with ionized air to remove dust. Cans are conveyed through the filler and cappers in an upside-down position.

After seaming and coupon placement, the can is conveyed to a machine that applies a plastic overcap.

The cans transfer onto a flat conveyor that delivers them to a helical feedscrew that meters them into the infeed starwheel of the All-Fill rotary filler, which in turn meters them into the filler turret. Cans slide on a single rail as they travel around the turret. A sensor monitors cans on the conveyor to the filler, and shuts the machine off if no cans are present. Flexured, segmented transfer funnels, designed for gentle product handling, descend onto the can filler and then raise from the cans as they discharge after filling. Sealing pads at the bottom of the funnels sit on top of the cans and create a tight seal for dust control. A vibrator moves the rail vertically near the turret discharge to settle the powder.

"Dust control is always a concern with these products, and All-Fill put a lot of thought and effort into this,? says Real. They installed a dust shroud connected to a vacuum source at the transfer funnels with valves to open and close at selected ports as product is filling to maximize suction. The system also has a vacuum wand at the center guiderails and vacuum ports in the top of the fill hopper.

Dry product discharges from an overhead holding tank into a 5-cu-ft hopper that houses dual augers that fill two cans simultaneously.

Each auger discharges into a collection funnel that in turn discharges into the 30 transfer funnels on the rotary turret as they pass beneath. A level control in the filler hopper controls infeed into the hopper to maintain a consistent level.

The filler is designed to accept feedback correction from the adjacent checkweigher, but the machine at Food Concept Developers does not include this feature, although it can be added. Other options for the filler include filling in intermediate mode, in which the turret moves continuously and the auger fills by a predetermined number of revolutions and at a selected speed, and auger and turret synchronization, in which the auger and turret motion can be synchronized to minimize product spillage during start, stop and pause conditions.

Cans discharge from the filler through a starwheel and enter the Alpha checkweigher, which incorporates three weight zones (under, accept, over) and features a ?2- to 3-gram accuracy for 1-lb cans, a ?3- to 4-gram for 2-lb cans and a ?4- to 5-gram for 5-lb cans. Out-of-spec cans are rejected as they leave the checkweigher.

The electronic control system for the checkweigher includes an alphanumeric LCD display plus an individual LED weight display, up to 25 programmable product setups, sample and hold display function, automatic setup of static and dynamic calibration, startup and dynamic self-diagnosis with error messages, and auto zero to compensate for product spillage, and digital automatic feedback control to the filler. The standard statistical data package for the checkweigher includes counters for each weight zone and total count, average and standard deviation on the last group of 50 packages, and long term (shift) average weight data and standard deviation.

From the checkweigher, cans are conveyed to a series of can seamers taken from another line, which actually apply the bottoms to the cans, since they are being handled in the upside-down position. The smaller 402 cans require two seamers, while the 502 cans require four seamers to keep up with throughput. Cans are then conveyed past a Videojet Technologies (www.videojet.com) ink-jet printer that applies the code to the can bottoms, after which they go through a twister that sets them in the upright position.

Next the cans are conveyed to a Model RPP-221O rotary Pick n? Place machine from MGS Machine Corp. (www.mgsmachine.com) for placement of a folded coupon on the top of the can. The unit does not require an infeed screw. Cans enter the unit randomly, and it senses the can and actuates the picking head. The coupons are loaded into an inclined magazine that runs in reverse flow to the direction of the line. Coupons are picked from the magazine by MGS?s servo-driven two-up rotary-motion pick-head and held for placement ahead of the delivery of each can. As the randomly spaced cans are conveyed to the unit, a sensor identifies can position to the PLC, triggering the accurate placement of each coupon.

Cans leaving the coupon applicator are conveyed to a Holomatic machine from Packaging Technologies (www.packt.com) that applies a plastic overcap, after which they are conveyed to an Arpac L.P. (www.arpac.com) DPM 1000 tray packer. Cans are diverted into three lanes as they enter the tray packer, which packs six cans at a time. Corrugated blanks are stacked in a magazine, and an arm rotates, picks up a blank with vacuum cups and rotates back to place the blank in the packer. The cans are pushed onto the blank, which is then lowered. Hot-melt glue is applied to the blank, which is formed around the cans as they are lowered. The trays are then conveyed through an Arpac shrink bundler, after which they are hand-palletized..

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