Better Bagging

Sometimes technological progress can overcome product disadvantages. Some American manufacturers have outsourced bags, used for bulk material like salt, sugar and animal feed, to manufacturers in China. As the linked article at Motion System Design indicates, bags can have irregular dimensions. This is problematic for handling by automated machinery.

Engineers of Thiele Technologies Inc., located in Minneapolis and a packaging equipment manufacturer, found a way to precisely position empty bags for the filling process. The system automatically compensates for dimension variations. The source of the custom electric screw linear actuators, which make the automatic compensation possible, is Tolomatic Inc., of Hamel, Minnesota.