New Robot Speeds Up Small Bagging Operation

In answer to increasing demand for our popular decorative gravel and construction aggregates, we have invested in a new state-of-the-art robot for our Oxford bagging plant. This incredible machine is part of a new semi-automated small bagging production line that has increased capacity and reduced costs. Ensuring great prices and stocked branches for our customers.

Meet our new robot

The new robot is part of a semi-automated production line which has been installed to significantly increase capacity and speed up our small bagging operation. Once again, we turned to automation experts RM Group with our requirements for the new bagging operation. Last year they built a bespoke feed hopper for our horticultural products bagging operation, this machine has been a great success and we knew that they would be able to fulfil our requirements.

The robot is the final stage of a larger semi-automated production line. To begin with an operative loads a bag below the hopper feeder and it is filled with sand. The first conveyor takes the bag to the heat sealer where it is closed. After this stage the remainder of the process is automated. Conveyors transport the filled bag to a press where it is rolled to a uniform shape, this makes stacking bags easier and safer. From here our new robot takes over.

The job of the robot is to collect filled bags from the conveyor and stack them neatly on a pallet. While this may sound simple, we can assure you that there is a lot of clever technology involved. The robot uses a wide array of sensors to “see” the bags, collecting each from the conveyor and stacking them in interlocking layers on the pallet. Once the pallet has been loaded with a precise number of filled bags the pallet is rotated on a turntable and wrapped to secure the contents. From filling to stacking, the process now takes as little as 30 seconds!

Our new production line for small bags can be operated by one person, but the biggest benefits are speed and accuracy. Our previous manual small bagging line had a capacity of around 25 pallets per day, we can now comfortably produce 65 pallets each day. Significantly increasing supply capacity while reducing costs and prices. Our robot and production line packs the bags so neatly that it also makes the pallets safer to handle a and stack.

This latest addition to our bagging operation represents a significant investment of over £100,000 and underlines our dedication to maintaining stocks and driving costs down for customers.