Brunnings Garden Products
Editorial
Brunnings Garden Products at Brendale, Brisbane invested in a turnkey PACKAGING SYSTEM from Kockums Bulk Systems in late 2004.
The system automatically forms, fills, and seals then palletises up to 2000 bags of product an hour, with bag sizes ranging from 10 litres to 80 litres
Products placed in the bags range from fine potting soils to large-piece barks.
After roughly 12 months of operation, Brunnings’ owner Mr Brian Billings has expressed his delight with the installation stating he has exceeded previous years’ throughput records, and the labour savings have made a dramatic improvement to his bottom line. He states “it’s the best thing I’ve ever done”.
Brian says “In all aspects of procurement, engineering, documentation and after sales support I have no hesitation in recommending Kockums Bulk Systems to other end users needing automation in their product handling and packaging locations.”
Control:
All product changes, pallet patterns, heights and throughput rates are configured from centrally located PLC controls, with touch screen operator interface.
Quick Bag Size Changes at the Bag Filling Machine:
When bag changes are required, the forming tubes which are required for a particular bag size are mounted on a carousel, and together with the quick-change film facilities mean that minimal down time occurs to yield optimum throughput.
Other user-friendly features and performance enhancing options include automatic tracking of the film carriage and film blocking at the end of rolls.
Plastic film rolls weighing to 350kg allow the possibility of continuous runs of up to 4000 bags.
Automatic Palletisers:
The two fully automatic form-fill-and-seal machines have individual robot palletisers that operate quite independently, and often on vastly different product and bag sizes. Both robot palletisers discharge through a conveyor system to a single rotary arm stretch wrapper. The wrapper is able to exceed 60 pallets per hour, complete with top sheet applicator.
Chosen from a carefully selected group of world leading manufacturers, to compliment the locally manufactured products, the Kockums Packaging Division incorporates these well proven technologies in their provision of technical solutions in Australasia.
