OVERVIEW
Throughout the years Entecon Industries Ltd has manufactured many Automatic Bag Slitters for different type of food manufacturers.
A solid bale fibre manufacturer contacted us with a challenge to convert our ASO to be able to cope with there bales.
This was a significant challenge as the fibre acted in a completely different way than the powder product we are use too.
The objective is to remove the plastic wrapper effectively, separating this from the fibre product while reducing the cost per KG for manufacture.

PROJECT
Entecon has produced a concept ASO Automatic Sack Opener 300ML (longer modified version of our standard ASO) to cope with the bales of fibre (3 different core sizes) with no physical adjustments between batches. the machine is to the customers configurations including using Allen Bradley Rockwell components and SMC / Norgren Pneumatics to ensure smooth integration and minimal spares holdings.

Because of the nature of the product (Carcinogenic), 2 operators had to cut each bag to allow it to work with the existing machine, with full PPE. This was deemed no longer necessary with the ASO300ML, as the cutting of the sacks manually does not help. Therefore, the process will be removed and saving on the cost per KG as per the original objective. 
With production demands rising, the client requires a high-capacity repeatable automated solution consistently removing the plastic into a separate waste stream.


OBJECTIVES
The client and Entecon developed the design criteria which includes:

• Improving the material handling process and contain dust / removing operators from the manual process and reducing risk
• Enhancing throughput and meeting the production capacity
• Reducing manual labour and associated risks
• Ensuring compatibility with client's existing production line

SOLUTION
Based on the client's criteria Entecon's Automatic Sack Opener (ASO300ML) has the following design and features:

• Opening  3 different 25kg plastic bags with fibre bales
• Handling sacks to batch requirements
• Instead of the 4 pull out trays on the standard machine, this machine has 2 enclosed hoppers with access via a hoover due to Carcinogenic properties of the product 
• Controls PLC and Pneumatics to be the same as all supplied on the site

CUSTOMER'S BENEFITS
Machine is now under Testing at the customers

Testing on site over wrap confirming short bales run
During testing of the machine we trialled a shorter bale with a plane over sack (grey) to prove it works.


Testing on site with uncompressed bale