Limited Intervention Powder Fillers

The Limited Intervention Filler range is designed to enable customers to fully automate their powder packing plant from the in-feed of empty bags right through to the finished product store.

The Limited Intervention (Li) packing system sets a new benchmark in automatic open mouth bag filling. In most powder packing plants, there is still a requirement to manually handle the packaging from the shipping pallet into the packing room and into the packing system. Customers wishing to fully automate their powder packing operation can now have a completely automated bag handling and packing system right through to the finished product store. The GEA range of Limited Invervention Filling solutions enables our customers to safely and reliable pack high quality food, dairy and nutraceutical products into 25kg (55lb) bags at up to 12MT/hr.

Limited Intervention Filling

In today’s world the safety of our customer's personnel and their product are paramount. That is why we designed the ‘Li’ system to be an extension of the automated powder manufacturing process.

The ‘Li’ system delivers a safe, hygienic bag handling and filling solution for powdered products offering the highest levels of accuracy and reliability. The system is designed to run with low operator input, with the only manual requirement being for cleaning and maintenance. The high operational efficiency of the system virtually eliminates the need for a full time operator inside the packing room, leaving the them free to attend to other areas of the production process.

With our many years of experience in the powder filling market, GEA has shown that in order to maintain a process in a steady state, total control is required.

The design of the ‘Li’ system addresses this by fully controlling the bag throughout the entire bag filling and closing process. In doing this we can be confident that, apart from the operator loading a product recipe and starting the machine, the built in automation takes control to maximize the machine output and thus allows the entire filling area to be fully enclosed. This fully enclosed system means that the risk to product and operation is virtually eliminated.

Key Features include:

Bag Control - Bag top positively held during entire filling and closing process;
Operator Exclusion - Controlling the bag eliminates the need for an operator to touch unfilled bags, therefore risk of product contamination is greatly reduced;
Single machine with integrated functionality from powder in-feed to sealed bag output;
Enclosed filling area - fully enclosed to prevent dust migration, while ensuring product and operator safety;
Automated machine adjustments to suit specific product types and bag sizes;
Bag De-couple Shuttle - Is utilized to transfer the bag to the heat sealer, eliminating the need for bag top leveling;
Integrated feedback weighing of sealed bag, enabling Auto-tune function for greater and consistent operational accuracy;
Provision for Automatic Bag De-palletizing System.

Our Range

The Limited Intervention Filler range starts with the RBF-500Li which has been designed to fill powdered food, dairy and nutraceutical products at rates of up to 5MT/hr. The system features an integrated bag loading and filling system which employs our "bottom-up" filling process for accurate, dust free filling.

The filled bag is compacted and presented to the integrated heat sealing system without releasing the top of the bag and thereby ensuring the most reliable bag handling operation. This functionality also means that there is no requirement for secondary bag leveling which further reduces the risk of bag damage due to misalignment.

The small footprint and fully integrated components means that this system can be quickly installed and up an running. This reduces the plant down-time for installations which have a tight schedule and this means that the return on investment is also shorter.

The RBF800Li, RBF-1000Li and the flagship RBF-1200Li are our larger models for packing rates of up to 8, 10 or 12MT/hr. Although the principle operation is the same, these larger models feature multiple heads which split the filling and bag handling processes into stages which results in a higher throughput.

Our Modified Atmosphere Packing option can be optionally supplied with the "Li" range. This option enables customers to pack products which are oxygen sensitive or which they need to preserve for extended periods. Refer to our Modified Atmosphere Packing section for more details on this option.