Coffee grounds recycler revamps bag packing
CKF SYSTEMS was contacted by Bio-bean – who recycle spent coffee grounds into a fuel source – and were asked to design and build a bag packing cell for their Coffee Logs product.
Installed in bio-bean’s production facility in Cambridgeshire, the new system has improved health and safety and working conditions as well as increasing efficiency and streamlining operations.
The fully automated packing cell was installed and commissioned on the customer premises in 2021. The cell receives the manufactured, formed logs on the twin infeed Conveyor from the production line. A dual cycle collation, pick and transfer system provides accurate positioning, orientation and loading of 8 logs per cycle into the pre-conditioned open paper bag. Using vacuum technology from Piab and servo-driven vertical axis, the logs are inserted into the waiting bag. The load operation is repeated, completing the filled bag containing sixteen coffee logs.
An automated bag delivery system has a magazine holding a stack of 90 flat pack bags, with a manually fed cassette allowing for bag replenishment with the machine running. This ensures the availability of the machine with no interruption to production.
The magazine conveyor and a custom designed vacuum head, positions the bag ready for packing. The bag is conditioned from its flat pack format with a combination of precision pneumatic systems prior to being clamped in position. The pre-conditioning of the bag together with the programmed servo driven axis ensures integrity of bag during the insertion of the orientated coffee logs. Once the bag has been packed with the logs it is automatically lowered and transferred from the filling area of the machine and onto the outfeed conveyor.
For more information, visit ckf.co.uk
