BBF Big Bag Filling Machine

How does a filling cycle run on the BBF?

The operator’s part ends with preparing the bag. The top spout of the empty bag is slipped over the machine’s filling head, the loops go onto the hooks and the cycle is started from the panel. From there the BBF takes over: feeding opens at full rate and most of the bag is filled within a short time. Once the reading gets close to the value entered on the panel, the machine switches by itself to slow, fine feeding, so the last kilograms arrive in a controlled stream. When the target is reached, feeding stops and the hooks open automatically to release the bag.

The full bag leaves the station on a roller conveyor or by forklift and goes on to storage, dispatch or the next process. Because the hooks open by themselves, nobody has to stand next to a heavy bag and undo the loops one by one. That saves a few seconds on every cycle and also cuts the time spent close to a suspended load.

What is set on the panel?

The BBF is operated from a touch panel. Values such as target weight and acceptance tolerance are stored as a recipe for each product; when the product changes, the operator simply picks the matching recipe. In a plant that fills fertiliser in the morning and premix in the afternoon, nobody has to retype the settings each time, and the risk of starting a run with the wrong values goes down.

The panel also makes order-based work easier. If a customer is to receive 24 bags, the required bag count is entered and filling ends when that count is complete. The total filled weight and the number of bags are shown on screen, so at the end of a shift you can read how many tonnes went into how many bags without a separate count. Menus and warning messages are available in Turkish and English.

Tare, error correction and tolerance alarm

With large bags, the last kilograms are the hardest part. Even at the moment feeding stops, there is product in the air between the filling head and the bag, and as it lands the weight can creep slightly past the target. The BBF has an automatic function that monitors and corrects this weighing deviation at the end of filling. Tare is also taken automatically for every bag, so the weight of the empty bag, and of any inner liner, does not end up in the product weight.

If a bag still falls outside the accepted band, the machine does not move on to a new cycle; it holds and raises a warning. An under- or overfilled bag therefore cannot slip into dispatch unnoticed. The operator checks the bag, makes the correction, and work resumes. The limits at which the warning is given are set in the recipe according to the value of the product and what the buyer expects.

Feeding method and auxiliary equipment

How the product reaches the bag depends on how freely it flows. Gravity feeding suits seed, grain and plastic granules that run under their own weight; a belt conveyor suits product that arrives from a conveyor line or flows unevenly; a screw conveyor is preferred for powders such as flour and premix that tend to pack. Where the flow needs to stay continuous and steady, a vibrating mechanism can be added to the feed. If the product has to settle fully inside the bag, a vibrating platform is placed where the bag stands.

The choice depends on the plant layout as well as on the product. For a very light, bulky material like perlite, settling by vibration and choosing a bag volume that matches the density come first. For heavy, abrasive materials such as sand and gravel, the question is rather how the feed spout and gates will be protected against wear.

Reading the capacity for your own plant

The figures given for the BBF are 15–30 big bags per hour and 15–30 tonnes per hour; with 1000 kg bags the two ranges match. Where you land within that range depends on the product’s flow, the way the machine is used and the pace at which operators fit and remove bags. A simple calculation is enough to test your own target: say 240 tonnes are to be bagged over two shifts a day; over 16 working hours that calls for 15 tonnes an hour. With 1000 kg bags that is 15 bags an hour, the bottom of the range. If the same tonnage has to fit into a single shift, the need rises to 30 bags an hour and moving full bags away on a conveyor becomes part of the discussion. Sending us your product, bag weight and daily target is enough for us to propose a suitable feed arrangement. We reply to quotation requests within 3–4 hours.