The company’s main processing and distribution center—located under the roof of a 110,000-square-foot facility in Laval—is equipped with four vertical form/fill/seal (F/F/S) automatic bagging machines and two manual F/F/S machines manufactured by the Montreal-based machine-builder WeighPack Systems Inc., with the latest of these machines installed last year to handle the filling and packaging of 10-kilogram bags.
“It was the growth of our markets that has led us to purchase our fourth WeighPack vertical bagging machine in 2007,” explains Victor Bou-Malhan, packaging manager the Laval plant.
“This one that is somewhat different from the others we own,” says Bou-Malhan, adding that the plant’s other packaging machines are utilized mostly for packaging product in one-pound and two-pound, or two-kilogram and five-kilogram bags.
“Sitting right in the middle of our facility, this machine is so tall and imposing that anyone walking into the department can’t help but look over at it with awe,” he says.
As befits the machine’s gargantuan proportions, the Vertek 1600 vertical F/F/S bagger offers the capacity to fill bags with approximately 500,000 pounds of product per week, according to Bou-Malhan.
Outfitted with a 240-kg-capacity hopper, the Vertek 1600 bagger features an incline feeding conveyor that runs the product to two augers located at the very top of the forming, filling and sealing area, where—depending on the bag weight requirements—the weighing mechanism activates the opening gate to release the product upon reaching the desired weight.
The machine is also equipped with three printers, with each of which performing a different printing function so as to not slow down the production line.
While most run-of-the-mill 10-kilo bulk bags are not known for user-friendliness, the WeighPack machine has enabled CLIC to enhance its bags with a special value-added feature that has provided the company with another important, if subtle, competitive advantage, according to Bou-Malhan.
“Our 10-kilo bags have a handle that is formed during the sealing operation,” Bou-Malhan explains.
“It’s at this stage that a mechanism is integrated into the bagging machine—making two one-inch-diameter holes within the top sealing band for the users to grasp the bag with their fingers,” says Bou-Malhan, while complimenting the performance of other WeighPack machinery installed at the Laval plant earlier, including two Vertek 1150 and a Vertek 750 models—integrated with a pair of servo-driven Star 200 augers.
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