High Mix & High-Speed Parts Bagger

Impetus to Invent

When you have dozens of people dedicated to putting small parts in a bag, working around the clock, a plant manager can’t help but shudder. “Why can’t this be automated?” is an obvious question, and Invent Automation answered the call. The problem is that the obvious solution of a centrifugal feeder falls apart when you need to bag 120 parts a minute, and changeovers between 14 part numbers can happen several times per day. We invented automation here in a unique way using conveyors and a chicane system fed by a large custom hopper and return system. The result is that parts are automatically bagged and sealed at 120 parts a minute, each bag gets a bag of nails, and labor is drastically reduced.

Problem Solved

High mix bagging with lots of changeovers.

Lessons Learned

Not going to lie, we made some mistakes on this one by trying to make the machine too small. In the end, we had to make the footprint bigger to get the machine to separate parts sufficiently. Lesson learned!

What Was Unique 

We are not aware of anyone else in the industry who has made a chicane feeder of this versatility.

What Was Challenging

Developing the speeds and chicane positions that worked with each of the fourteen-part numbers.