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Feature Barcoding, labelling & packaging Bagging solution makes horse sense


Two palletising and bagging system upgrades installed by Pacepacker Services have helped Mars Horsecare UK achieve its ‘lean’ manufacturing objectives. As a direct result of Pacepacker’s solution Mars has reduced maintenance costs by 90 per cent on their palletising line, while overall efficiency of the bagging and palletising operation has increased to deliver an overall output of 300 tonnes of bag packed horsefeed per day


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en years ago Pacepacker auto- mated the first of two palletising lines within Mars Horsecare UK’s Milton Keynes factory, and subse- quently installed a second system only nine months ago. Both packing lines have a dual feed from two separate production lines each delivering 20 - 25kg sealed bags of Spillers horse feed at a speed of up to 20 bags per minute across both lines.


Supplying almost a third of the UK horsefeed market Mars Horsecare UK manufactures and packs over 35,000 tonnes of Spillers Nutritional Horse Feed, in compound/mix form, per year - 82 per cent of which is sold directly to UK wholesalers and retailers while the remainder is exported to Europe, Middle East and Far East. Pacepacker was approached by Mars Horsecare UK to replace an existing 20-year-old pal- letiser, which palletises over 18,000 tonnes of their branded course mix feed per year. This old palletiser had been become increasingly unreliable and costly to maintain. As a result Pacepacker supplied and installed a Fanuc 410 robot which was incorpo-


torically been manually fed, to help automate the process and increase the speed and efficiency of the entire packing operation.” Pacepacker’s solution has enabled Mars Horsecare UK to reach its daily output target more efficiently, as Eddie Lear, site rngineer for Mars Horsecare UK, explains: “Pacepacker has pro- vided us with a system which is deliv- ering the desired output per day in almost 30 per cent less time than the original palletiser. As a consequence our overhead costs have dramatically decreased as a result of the shorter pro- ductions runs. Coupled with the diminution of our breakdown costs we have met our lean manufacturing objectives.”


Pacepacker originally automated the palletising process on the first produc- tion line for Mars Horsecare UK 10 years ago by installing a Fanuc 410 robot along with a Sack Flattener. The flattener shapes the bag in preparation for palletising and is electrically inter- locked to work with a V Track convey- ing system, which transports the bags to the Fanuc 410.


rated with a twin grab technology, giving the robot the capability of simul- taneously picking and palletising the bags from each of the two production lines – fed to it at a combined rate of almost 700 bags per hour.


Ian Merchant, Pacepacker brand manager, comments: “As a long stand- ing customer of Mars we historically fitted a T20 Sack Placer onto this par- ticular production line, which had his-


The twin grab technology gives the robot the ability to palletise from two separate production lines


Printers withstand challenging dust conditions L


eading aggregates packer and distributor CJB Bagging, part of Day Group, has achieved cost and time savings of 66 per cent at


its Tolworth site thanks to the installation of three Domino V300+ thermal transfer overlay (TTO) printers. CJB Bagging packages aggregates including salt, limestone, ballast and sand, and distributes them to a number of big name building outlets and smaller independent merchants nationwide. At its Tolworth facility aggregates are received in bulk via its own dedicated railway line, and then offloaded into loading bays before joining one of three automated packaging lines. Here, the product is sorted, weighed, bagged and coded with a product name. The bags are palletised and distributed by the company’s dedicated fleet of delivery vehicles across the country. Due to the heavy duty nature and dusty conditions within its Webster Griffin bagging line, CJB Bagging was experiencing constant failure of its existing coding printer resulting in regular, unscheduled maintenance downtime which was disrupt- ing the company’s ability to deliver product at peak times. According to Trevor Croft, site manager at CJB Bagging’s Tolworth site, the company was impressed by the build


quality, performance and output speed of Domino’s V300 printers which could withstand the challenging conditions of its packing line and meet the increased production speeds that CJB Bagging was looking for. It purchased three V300+print- ers; two V300+ two inch printers and one V300+ five inch printer to code product names onto the bags of aggregates.” Croft says: “We are delighted with the results since installing our V300+s. The Domino support team is always on hand, so we no longer have to worry about the coding of our products, and we can concentrate on delivering our aggregates to our customers on time. We are already looking to install the V300+ onto our other two bagging lines.” Domino Printing Sciences T: 01954 782551


www.domino-uk.com Factory Equipment NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 Enter 309


This initial installation assisted Mars Horsecare UK with their growing business, increasing output by two tonnes of horsefeed per hour and improving bag presentation. As Eddie Lear explains: “Initially manual work- ers were hand stacking the bags which was labour intensive and the resultant pack presentation was often poor. The installation of the original Fanuc 410 robot improved not just the efficiency of this process but increased the volume output, and the quality of our finished bag presentation.”


Merchant comments: “As a Fanuc Strategic partner with a 15 year rela- tionship we have been able to offer Mars Horsecare UKspecialist applica- tion experience to devise a solution which has assisted them in achieving a leaner way of working.


“The new robotic palletising solu- tion provides accurate and reliable sack stacking on a pallet which can hold up to 50 bags of horsefeed, with no human intervention. The robots provide a perfectly presented pallet every time and have minimal moving parts, which reduces the room for error and the likelihood of breakdowns.” As a Fanuc Strategic partner for pick and place and palletising systems, Pacepacker can offer customers a vari- ety of new and pre-owned solutions. Pacepacker Services T: 01371 811544 www.pacepacker.com


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