A Cape Town food producer packing dried ostrich for retail and export needed accurate, weight-based portions in pre-made pouches. We supplied a 4-head weigher on a stainless steel table, fed by a Z-type bucket elevator, that weighs 50 g to 500 g portions at 30 to 40 bags a minute ahead of semi-automatic pouch sealing.
The customer processes dried ostrich products for retail and export. The pieces are irregular and do not flow evenly, yet every pouch has to hold the right weight and look good on the shelf, because the product sells at the premium end of the market.
The customer wanted weight-based portioning into pre-made pouches, with the option of semi-automatic or fully automatic packing.
Irregular dried pieces had to be portioned by weight to hit the declared pack weight.
The feed had to keep pieces moving into the weigher without bridging or surging.
Each pre-made stand-up pouch had to be filled cleanly for retail.
We recommended a 4-head weigher because combining the weights of several heads hits the target weight for irregular pieces far more closely than filling by volume. A Z-type bucket elevator with a silo vibrator lifts the product to the weigher, and its controls are set up to serve two packing machines.
The weigher combines the readings of its four heads to make up each portion, then drops it into the open pouch for sealing.
| Weigher | 4-head, stepping motor drive |
| Portion range | 50 g to 500 g |
| Speed | 30 to 40 bags a minute |
| Accuracy | ±2% |
| Hopper | 1.6 L |
| Feed | Z-type elevator, 7,200 L/h, 3 L buckets, silo vibrator |
| Frame | 304 stainless steel table |
| Power | 220 V single-phase, 2 kW |
| Packs | Pre-made bags or tubs |
The weigher and elevator were supplied to portion dried ostrich by weight into pre-made pouches, with one or two operators running the line.
The weigher fills pouches at 30 to 40 a minute.
Each 50 g to 500 g portion is weighed to within 2%.
The elevator controls are set up to feed two packing machines.
Start from your product, your pack weights and the output you need, as this project did.
Every machine we supply that packs granules and pieces.
Supply, installation and support in Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Send us your product, your pack weights and the output you need. We will test it and come back with a recommendation or quotation.
