Big bag filling stations for fish feed

Industrial big bag filling equipment for semi-automatic process in the fish food industry

Materials: Meat meal and bone meal

Project objective: Our client, located in South Carolina, is a manufacturer of fish meal and fish feed for the aquaculture industry. The client was using a very manual process of loading big bags under mixers while suspended by a forklift. This was creating issues with material spillage and dust exposure. They needed a means of containing the bulk material without creating dust clouds in the work environment. Important industrial design elements to take into consideration were big bag inflation, inflatable containment seal, automatic weighting, dosing and a vibrating densification table.

Industrial solution: The Palamatic Process sales team recommended two Flowmatic®03 semi-autonomous big bag filling stations. This big bag filling station is easy to install and use for immediate big bagging production and packaging. The operation sequence starts with an operator loading the handles of the big bag on the hanging forks. He then takes the charging spout and connects it to an inflatable seal. Once secured the operator can use the PLC to begin the automated sequence. First the spout connection seal inflates safely via a pressure regulator and compressed air line. The seal presses the spout against a steel clamping ring to fully secure it in place and contain any free-floating dust particulates. The pre-inflation fan inflates the big bag for optimal shape and filling. Once inflated, the fan shuts off and the bypass valve switches to the dust collection network. As the fish meal begins to fill the bulk, a pneumatic cylinder gently lowers it onto the vibrating densification table. The load cells give feedback to the control panel regarding the fill weight. As the big bag fills, the vibrating table shakes the big bag to help settle the material and stabilize the big bag.
Once the target weight is reached, the material flow control valve (butterfly valve or slide valve depending on the selected option) shuts the main flow off. The table shakes once more for final densification. The forklift operator can now safely remove the big bag either by its handles (U-shaped hanging fork design) or by its pallet.

Palamatic Process can offer a wide range of big bag filling stations and systems, from manual, semi-automatic to fully automatic. The system can be designed to fully contain bulk material and control dust emissions by integrating small dust collection units or connecting the double jacked filling head to a central baghouse.