Bulk bag fillers increase speed 15X

The installation of three gain-in-weight bulk bag filling systems for peanut producer Golden Grove significantly increases packaging speed and improves accuracy by 400%.

Pw 70180 Pr 19 Photo 1 Golden Grove

Packaged peanut producer Golden Grove of Warsaw, NC, sells its Carolina/Virginia-style peanuts to wholesalers around the world. While some peanuts are made into candy and some are roasted, packaged, and sold to retailers, the majority of Golden Grove’s 10,000-ton harvest is left raw and sold in bulk. The company’s raw in-shell peanuts are packed in 900-lb bulk bags and shipped to customers around the world. Not long ago, as Golden Grove’s wholesale business began to grow, the company saw opportunities to improve its bulk bag filling efficiencies.

In the past, Golden Grove employees manually filled 20 bulk bags per day. Three filling stations each contained a hopper fitted with a slide gate and a scale positioned below. An operator would open the slide gate allowing the peanuts to fall into the bulk bag until the bag was within ± 2 lb of the target 900-lb weight. The process was extremely slow and labor-intensive. Weighing accuracies could be improved to increase profitability as well.

The process also generated some spillage and possible product contamination. If the bag spout was not held firmly beneath the slide gate, peanuts fell on the floor and had to be swept up daily. Operators were easily bored with the tedious process and would sometimes look at their cellphones during filling. On occasion, cell phones (and other items) were dropped into the bulk bag, contaminating the contents.

Golden Grove required a significantly faster, contamination-free process to meet the growing wholesale demand. To find a solution, the company turned to Spiroflow Systems, which recommended an automated gain-in-weight filling system.

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