Cement Americas

FAL 2013

Cement Americas provides comprehensive coverage of the North and South American cement markets from raw material extraction to delivery and tranportation to end user.

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FEATURE THE BAGGING TRIANGLE A Shift or Change in One Corner – the Product, Bag or Machine – May Necessitate a Change in Another. By Markus Lackmann D ry bulk packaging is a simple yet sensitive balancing act. Maximum efficiency and productivity are at the center of a triangle with product, bag and machine at the vertices. This delicate balance is called The Bagging Triangle. It describes the relationships between the three corners and how the right combination can positively impact an operation's bottom line. It's a simple concept; a shift or change in one corner – the product, bag or machine – necessitates a change in one or sometimes both of the others. While it's common for packagers to blame machines when bagging efficiency goes down, experience shows that equipment often is not the culprit. It's just as likely that product specs or the bag have changed and disrupted efficiency. Packagers who are able to work with their bag suppliers and machine manufacturers in applying The Bagging Triangle can pinpoint the source of the problem more quickly, get their operations back into three-corner balance and consistently hit the sweet spot of efficiency, productivity and profitability. HARMONY EQUALS PROFIT To illustrate, consider a product manufacturer that decides to upgrade its 12 packaging machines. The company's project engineers, the bag supplier and the machine manufacturer get on the same page regarding the right combination of machine and bags for maximum efficiency and production. Everything has been tested and projections look excellent. The new machine is installed, it is in harmony with the product and bags, and the company is meeting quotas. All is well until an operator notices something is off; the machine is not filling at the expected rates or it is consistently hitting the target rate in the morning, but it always drops after midday. Even at a more basic level, maybe the operation is losing half a pound of product on every bag. Simple math shows how significant these scenarios can be (Figure 1). It's easy to understand why companies want to address them quickly, and they often look to their machine manufacturer for answers. THREE KEY POINTS Regardless of which type of bag an operation uses – valve, form fill seal or open-mouth – the ultimate goal for dry bulk packagers is to fill and seal as many bags as possible with exceptional accuracy in a specified time period. The number that a company can actually fill depends on the delicate balance of The Bagging Tri- angle's three corners. Figure 1. Product – The installation of any new packaging equipment should begin with a thorough analysis of the product and its properties. Material composition, consistency, size of particles, what form they are in and how they are distributed all come into play. Drilling down further gets to more crucial traits such as flow property, bulk density, moisture content, deaeration characteristics, compaction properties and trickling capability. Occasionally a product manufacturer CEMENT AMERICAS • Fall 2013 • www.cementamericas.com

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