Customer Requirements
Shipping their ‘dream machine’ motorcycles internationally has proved challenging for a leading American motor cycle manufacturer. For deliveries to Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, motorcycles are strapped to an aluminum pallet, polybagged and cartoned for shipment which can take up to eight weeks or more.
The problem was that moisture in the air caused rust spots, mildew or mold to form on the motorcycles which resulted in many hours of repair work by the receiving dealership, before delivery to the customer.
- To solve the problem, the motorcycle maker approached a US-based custom designer and manufacturer of moisture absorbing pouches.
- These pouches contain a granular mineral clay. The company in question provides moisture-absorbing solutions for keeping compressed air, hydraulic oil and shipment spaces moisture free.
- The mineral clay is delivered in 2,000lb/ 900kg bulk bags and has to be re-packaged in 3lb/ 1kg and 4.5lb/ 2kg pouches.
- To accomplish this, the company contacted Gough Econ, Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina a specialist supplier of bucket elevators, belt conveyors and vibratory feeders.The Model T6 Bulk Bag Unloader
Spiroflow Solution
The challenge was to design and install a material handling system that is extremely gentle which can handle the very fragile granular mineral clay and deliver it undamaged to the pouch filling machine.
- The system includes a fully self-contained Spiroflow Model T6 Bulk
- Bag Unloader, a vibrating tray feeder and a Gough Econ bucket elevator.
The Spiroflow Bulk Bag Unloader has an integral hoist. This means that the pallet mounted 2,000lb/ 900kg bulk bags can be brought to the unloader on a pallet truck and there is no need for a forklift truck to lift the bag into position. - A sole operator lifts the bags into the unloader using a bag rigging frame, where the loops of the bag are properly secured and this frame is then raised by the hoist.
- The hoist runs along a fully-load tested integral “I” lifting beam enabling the raised bag to be traversed into position above the collection hopper.
- The collection hopper has an interlocked access door with viewing port to assure dust-tight operation.
- The door is amply sized to enable the operator to untie and retie the bag spout and liner as needed.
The bag support dish at the top of the collection hopper houses bag massagers. - These are operated manually in case the material has become compacted during transportation or storage and doesn’t unload easily from the bag.
- Unloaded material is transferred from the unloader via the vibratory feeder into the bucket elevator up into the pouch packing machine.
