Bulk bag packing system for chocolate candies

Processed bulk materials: chocolate beads

Storage in Super Sacks

This customer is a world-renowned candy manufacturer producing fragile chocolate beads that are packed for the consumer retail market.

In order to guarantee high quality to their customers, our client took every precaution concerning the raw ingredients be free of ferrous and non-ferrous foreign bodies contamination (likely to come from the upstream process), and also avoid product "breakage". These process requirements were essential for a friable product intended for mass distribution. In addition, the client wanted to pack the chocolate candies in both 2,000 lbs. bulk bags and 600 lbs. small containers.

Since they are in the food industry with strict hygienic requirements, the customer wanted a system designed for easy cleaning with no material retention areas.
Palamatic Process has developed a FlowMatic® 03 big bag filling system equipped with an upstream magnetic detector. This detector, with adjustable sensitivity via keypad, is provided with an ejection system.
If a foreign body is detected when the material passes through, a quick-acting cylinder "bypasses" the inlet chute on the side to a waste collector.
In the event of detection, the speed of the system ensures that product loss is minimal. Furthermore, a jetty chute with baffles was installed to avoid breaking the product on both filling levels (attrition). This chute has been internally coated with a hard elastomer, as well as the angles given to the baffles.
The difficulty of adapting to the two loading heights (greater than 3 feet) while keeping the loading chute low enough (to avoid material attrition) was solved in the simplest possible way.
Two successive and opposite cylinders provide the transfer from the loading chute into the small container, which can be closely mounted to the outlet of the same chute.
The whole system is operated with an inflight error management system to get as close as possible to the target fill weight.

Material of Construction:

In order to deliver a hygienic and easy to clean unit, Palamatic Process made this station in 304L stainless steel with welds ground smooth, passivation and a fine grit finish to give a smooth and uniform appearance to this skid.
The load cells are raised and allow easy cleaning of the lower part of the system. The metalwork has been specially designed to avoid right angles, sources of retention, as well as corners.

Big bag filling - operating mode (2,000 lbs):

After positioning his pallet on the reception tray, the operators puts the loops of the flexible container on the tubular bulk bag hanging forks. The station is then activated by push button controls and the expansion of an inflatable joint provides dust containment by clamping the fill spout.
This station is also fitted with a big bag tensioning system to optimize the material filling procedure and dynamically adjust the bulk material's drop height.

IBC filling operating mode (300 lbs):

The container is positioned on the receiving frame with centering devices on the structure of the IbcFill®01 container filling system.
The operator then controls the lifting of the IBC as close as possible to the filling head. As the IBC is filled, it gradually lowers according to the fill weight.
The system meets the needs of its preservation features (no bulk material deterioration), its dosing accuracy and its ease of cleaning, as well as for its general appearance.