Comparing Apples
By Alan Vaught
U
mlor Orchards is a thriving apple
growing and packing business,
located in Conklin Mich. Like
many growing companies, they face the
daily challenge of how to increase productivity and do so with the same equipment in the same space. The problem was
clearly going to be a difficult one to solve
with a limited amount of equipment. They
needed to find a creative way to run multiple size/weights of their bagged apples
on the same production line at the same
time, while ensuring that each and every
bag met their customers’ expectation on
bag weight.
A look inside the operation
After apples are sorted and sized they are
automatically weighed and delivered to a
chute one apple at a time until the target
weight is met. The multiple chutes have
individual target weights, allowing some
operators to package three pound bags
while other operators fill the five pound
bags. When the bags are filled, they pass
6 Industrial Weigh & Measure
through a closure machine that attaches a
plastic tab and label to each bag. All bags
are then placed on a common take-away
conveyor, delivering the bagged product
downstream to manual loading stations.
Three pound bags are hand-packed into
shipping cartons while the five pound
bags continue further downline to where
they’ll also get packed into shipping
cartons by hand.
Cartons are then placed on pallets and
transported to cold storage within the
packing shed—remaining there until they
are loaded onto trucks for distribution to
Umlor Orchards’ customers.
Special attention is given to moisture
content within the apples throughout the
process to ensure minimal moisture loss
by the time it reaches the grocers produce
department. Though a bag of apples may
initially weigh five pounds when packaged; underestimating the role that time
and temperature play during the process
may lead to a loss of moisture, presenting the potential for under-weight bags
on the retailer’s shelf. Moisture loss also
greatly affects the appearance, texture
and taste of the apples.
It’s all about the customer
The existing process allows for a production rate and daily output that meets
their current customers’ needs. Furthermore this layout and process gives Umlor
Orchards the flexibility to pack out a variety of bag sizes separately or together
to meet current demand. As part of this
www.iwammag.com • May/Jun 2016
to Apples
Model 5511
Universal Scale
Controller
Pre-Programmed
for these Applications
•
•
•
•
•
•
ValveBagPackers
DrumFillers
NetWeighScales
BulkBagFillers
BagInBoxFillers
In-MotionScale
Select the desired program, all
timers, sequencing and I/O are
pre-configured and ready for use.
existing process, production personnel
spot-check bag weights to verify bags
are within acceptable limits. This
method relies on the operator to check
on a regular basis and respond to any
under-weight issues that may arise.
New customers coming to Umlor
Orchards find the filling and handling
process and methods very attractive,
because of the flexibility to run a
variety of packages to meet their needs.
However, some of these new customers
demand a more reliable method of bag
weight verification, asking for 100
percent inspection.
Problem verified
Adding total weight inspection presents a very serious problem since a
single operator cannot possibly keep up
with the current production rates and
manually verifying each bag.
This presented Umlor Orchards with
a real process logistic problem. How
do you maintain your current packing
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methods, use the same equipment and,
at the same time, meet your customers’ requirement for 100 percent weight
inspection?
Adding several additional people to
manually check every bag crowds the
production line, bottlenecks throughput
and adds a tremendous amount of overhead to operating expenses.
Weighing the possible options
You could use an in-motion checkweigher, as they are designed to weigh
each package to a specific target weight
and set of reject limits. This solution would make more financial sense,
as well as lower long-term operating
expenses. It would also meet the 100
percent inspection stipulation, but it
would also mean changing the whole
way Umlor Orchards packaged their
product. No longer could both three and
five pound bags get packed at the same
time. This would throw the advantage of
Available for single, 2, 3 or 4
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applications.
Each Channel includes 8 24VDC
Inputs & 8 24VDC Outputs.
Built-in Ethernet TCP/IP for data
logging and to install updates or
changes via your laptop.
EIP Option provides complete
command set for calibration, recipe
creation, and display of all weight
and filling information on your HMI.
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Continued on page 8
Industrial Weigh & Measure 7
Comparing Apples to Apples...
Continued from 7
Umlor’s line flexibility out the window.
A new dedicated production line would
work, but it would be very expensive
and a huge undertaking. And the long
timeframe of doing such a project would
be an inconvenience to customers.
Call in the pros
For fear of not meeting the established
customers’ needs, as well as the possibility of losing newer and future customers,
Umlor Orchards began asking the advice
of vendors and colleagues to find a solution that would answers all their production needs.
After some weeks of searching for
an answer Omlor Orchards contacted
Exchange Team Advantage (ETA), based
in Ludington, Mich., and talked to Doug
Sarto and Matt Gill. It became clear to
them early on that Vince Umlor, owner
of Umlor Orchards had a good vision for
what the company wanted to accomplish,
but he just needed help getting there.
Vince told them, “I need to make sure it
can run three pound and five pound bags
simultaneously—without any kind of
hesitation. I need to be clear about this
point. If it can’t do that, then this will not
work for us.”
After listing all of Omlor Orchards
problems, Doug and Matt surveyed the
company’s production line. And since
they were independent sales representatives for several packaging related companies, including an in-motion checkweigher company, they were confident a
solution was just around the corner.
Doug and Matt spoke with the sales engineering team at Thompson Scale Company (Thompson Scale), a Houston, Texas based manufacturer of in-motion
checkweighers. They explained their customer’s problem and asked for a unique
solution. Details on production, types of
bags, weight ranges, and production rates,
etc., were discussed. Thompson Scale
was soon fully involved by creating solutions for the verification problems Omlor
Orchards was facing, and to bring a successful process to fruition.
Custom Checkweigher Solution
Thompson Scale offered a small package in-motion checkweigher with an infeed acceleration conveyor, scale conveyor and drop-nose style reject conveyor, all
8 Industrial Weigh & Measure
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on a common frame.
Standard checkweigher controls were
provided with a bit of custom programming added. And a special routine was
devised to simultaneously monitor two
different recipes within the checkweigher controls, allowing the checkweigher to
weigh and compare each bag weight to
the two different recipes in real-time.
As long as the low-reject weight of the
larger bag wasn’t as low or lower than the
high-reject weight value of the smaller
bag (no cross-over in values) then the
checkweigher would weigh each bag to
the correct target and reject parameters
at rates in excess of 60 bags per minute.
Effectively comparing apples to apples.
Vince Umlor found this simple solution
to be exactly what he needed.
“Knowing that every single bag is
weighed is not only ‘piece of mind,’ it is
priceless,” said Vince.
The checkweigher’s HMI provided information on both recipes being run
and their respective target weights. Data
output via a built-in Ethernet TCP/IP
within the checkweigher controls allows
Omlor Orchards’ customers to collect
every bag weight for proof of compliance
with their customers’ 100 percent inspection requirement.
The operators can see in real-time the
production totals, such as the number
of low rejects, good weights and high
rejects. Viewing the color-coded display
screen is easy and can be seen from up to
30 feet away.
The custom checkweigher solution
deffinately checked off all the goals to
success for the apple orchard. It addressed
production rate throughput, accuracy
requirments (+/-2 to 3 grams), and it’s
mechanically very durable.
Vince Umlor summed it up best, talking
with ETAs Doug Sarto, he said, “We can
now tell our customers that every bag is
weighed and meets their customer specs.”
Finding the drop-nose reject option
Now that a solution is available to
monitor 100 percent of production, the
packing shed needed to figure out how
www.iwammag.com • May/Jun 2016
to manage off-weight bags that crossed
the scale.
Rejection of off-weight bags presents
its own set of challenges. Running at
high production rates, with bags traveling down fast-moving conveyors,
means there’s very little time to weigh,
and typically less time to reject an
off-weight package.
Running at a production rate of 60
bags per minute equates to one bag per
second. At this speed, using a traditional
pusher or sweep-arm style reject-device
would be difficult or impossible. It would
require moving the bag to a reject-chute
or slide–sending the bag off to the side of
the scale. The arm or sweep would then
need to retract back into position before
the next bag got to the reject station.
That’s only a half second to move the offweight bag, and half second for the arm or
reject-device to retract back into position
for the next bag.
The results of pushing a five pound
bag at 90 degrees to the flow of the
conveyor is–well... a bag full of bruised
and battered product. That’s only good
for apple sauce! It was obvious that the
sweep-arm and/or reject-device was not
the solution for this application.
The eventual solution would have to
gently remove the off-weight bags. But
there was another problem to consider;
one that invariably happens in these
types of packaging operations. It’s an
occasional missed closure on a bag. The
open bag–when it happens–travels down
the conveyor line scattering loose product
that can be difficult to remove from the
line with a pusher or diverter reject
device.
The answer to both these problems is
the drop-nose reject option, which gives
a quick and gentle solution to remove
off-weight or open bags to a bin or chute
located below the production line.
Because the bags are moving in the
same direction as the flow, there’s no
imparted force trying to change the inertia
of the bag—meaning a gentler rejection
method and far less damaged product.
The undamaged rejects are then reworked
into new bags to complete the process.
The golden apple
The checkweigher solution was spot-on;
solving every problem that was discussed
with ETA and Thompson Scale. Umlor
Orchards is now able to maintain their
current line configurations with flexibility
for packing whatever is in demand at
the moment, all while meeting their new
retail customers’ expectations on 100
percent inspection.
The folks from ETA assisted with the
mechanical and electrical installation,
which took just a few hours to complete.
Calibration, setup and commissioning
were straight-forward, and the operators
were trained and able to change from
one set of recipes to another within a few
minutes.
Data from the checkweigher presents a
complete picture of bag weights, weight
variances and number of rejects. This
information is then mined and used to
make improvements up-stream at the
bagging stations, and down-stream when
deciding production capacities for new
pending orders.
Problem solved –