AUTOMATED WEIGH BATCHING OF MSG INCREASES OUTPUT, ENDS FATIGUE AT GOYA FLORIDA

Sazón, Inc. produces bouillon powders and varieties of Sazón GOYA® seasonings for GOYA Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the US. The original product line was launched in Puerto Rico in 1973 and moved to GOYA’s Miami-area facility in 1983.

Workers previously loaded herbs, spices, salt and monosodium glutamate (MSG) manually into three ribbon blenders, each with a working capacity of nearly 1,360 kg (3,000 lb). The job required lifting, cutting, and dumping several dozen bags per batch, for 21 batches over an eight-hour shift. “Dumping 22.5 kg (50 lb) bags of MSG for every batch is not easy work,” says Hiram Carlo, plant manager.

Automated weigh batch discharging from bulk bags ends fatigue

Due to robust sales growth, Sazon, Inc. added two more packaging lines and two blenders to the operation in 2019. It also installed five identical bulk weighing and batching systems, one for each blender, to add MSG, a large-volume ingredient in many of the 19 seasoning and bouillon recipes.

Engineered and supplied by Flexicon Corporation, each of the batching systems combines a BULK-OUT® bulk bag discharger and a flexible screw conveyor that feeds MSG into a PNEUMATI-CON® pneumatic conveying line 17 m (55 ft) long.

Five identical bulk weighing and batching systems, each comprised of a bulk bag discharger on load cells, move MSG from bulk bags through a pneumatic conveying line to five blenders.

In operation, 0.9-tonne (1 ton) bulk bags of MSG are delivered by forklift to the bulk bag discharger, which is mounted on load cells. The operator connects the bag loops to a lifting frame at floor level and, using a pendant controller, loads the bag into the discharger frame by means of a hoist and trolley travelling on a cantilevered I-beam.

The operator then makes a dust-tight connection to a SPOUT-LOCK™ clamp ring atop a TELE-TUBE™ telescoping tube, and unties the spout drawstring. The telescoping tube applies continuous downward tension on the bag as it empties and elongates, promoting flow and evacuation.

A Spout-Lock clamp ring makes a dust-tight connection while a Tele-Tube telescoping tube applies downward tension on the bag, promoting flow and evacuation.

The MSG powder, comprised of fine white crystals, flows into a 142 L (5 cu ft) floor hopper charging an integral 1.5 m (5 ft) long, 90 mm (3.5 in.) diameter flexible screw conveyor. The conveyor propels the product at an incline, discharging through flexible downspouting into a pickup adapter feeding a 64 mm (2.5 in.) diameter pneumatic conveying line.

Load cells supporting the bulk bag discharger transmit loss-of-weight signals to a PLC that controls the batch weight of MSG. “We just input the information into the panel, say 2,000 pounds, and that’s it,” Carlo says.

An operator inputs the batch weight to be delivered to the filter receiver.

Upon receiving the signal, the inclined flexible screw conveyor feeds the MSG into the pickup adapter. From there, the material travels 17 m (55 ft) horizontally and 4.6 m (15 ft) vertically to a 60 cm (24 in.) diameter filter-receiver that discharges into a 71 L (2.5 cu ft) hopper.

Delivery of the MSG slows and stops automatically when the weight lost from the bulk bag reaches the target batch weight. A rotary airlock valve simultaneously discharges the batch into the blender through down-spouting, as minor ingredients are added manually.

After 30 minute blending cycles, the batch gravity discharges through a slide gate, and passes through a check-sifter before flowing into a hopper from which a flexible screw conveyor feeds a packaging line. Foil-lined packets are formed and filled with 5 to 10 g (0.18 to 0.35 oz) of material, and heat-sealed at rates of 1,000 to 1,500 per minute.

Blended batches are gravity discharged into a polymer surge hopper and flexible screw conveyor that feeds a packaging machine with no separation of blends. The fully enclosed system prevents contamination of the product and plant environment.

The packets are inserted into a carton that passes through a check-weigher, gets coded, and moves to an accumulator for placement into a “master case.” In the final step, two palletisers consolidate the master cases for shipment.

Higher output with fewer personnel

The plant operates two shifts and can process 35 batches per shift, versus 21 batches previously, with just five operators responsible for batching, blending, packaging and shipping.

“We package more than a billion packets a year now, and we’re much more comfortable,” Carlo says. “No worker fatigue, and far less time dumping bags manually. It’s a more efficient way to make our products and it’s making our lives easier.”