Regal molle, Norway

Regal Molle, a company that forms part of the Cerealia Group, upgraded and expanded its packaging facilities at the Moss plant in Østfold, Norway. The expansion was carried out to update the type of packaging being used for flour-based bread, cake and waffle mixes. The packaging needed to be convenient for the consumer to reseal and also easier to form using the new equipment. The company required a fully automated sack filling and packaging line with palletising and automated warehousing. The expansion of the packaging facilities that began in April 2003 required an estimated investment of Norwegian Kroner 108m (€12.7m). The development of the new packaging plant proved to be a challenge since it had to fit into an existing building with minimal disruption to the normal activity of the facility. The project was completed by the first quarter of 2004.

Contractor

The contractor for the design, development and installation of the new filling and packaging facility was Korsnas Packaging. Regal Molle required a bespoke facility, which incorporated all their required features but also fit into the confined area of their current site. Korsnas Packaging was able to come up with a custom built sack/bag filling methodology for this purpose. They have designed a system able to carry out the packaging of two separate and distinct products by dosing using the same net weighter. This weighter has the ability to become a screw filling machine for the filling of bags with flour-based products such as batter, cake and waffle mixes. In addition the system can be adapted to give a vibrator dosing machine that is suitable for filling bags with products such as oats, grain, meal, flakes and muesli (these products need to be handled more gently). Muesli is packed now in bag-less boxes (Performa Barr board from Stora Enso) using chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) materials which do not impair the contents with odours or taints (dried fruits need to be handled very carefully).

Grippen III robot

The palletising of products was always a bottleneck for production at Regal Molle and they were keen to prevent this with the new filling and packaging plant. Korsnas Packaging was able to install in the required area a Grippen III robot palletiser supplied by Bates Malischa Wien, with a specially modified sheet dispenser. This flexible palletising system makes each layer of sacks smooth and compact and so minimises damage and fully utilises the space available. The Grippen III robot has the following advantages:

• High level of in-feed for bags
• The capacity is up to 10 bag-laying cycles per minute
• Robot gripper adaptable to different styles and sizes of bag
• X–Y movement of gripper device
• Double-stripper plate and bag stop
• Press of every layer
• Hydraulic lifting of pallet to storage area in warehouse

The machine can also be adapted to use either Pinch Bottom bags or Valve Sacks depending upon the type of product.

Pinch bottom bags

The Pinch bottom bag is the best sealed packaging for products such as flakes and meal. The bottom of the bag is a pinch and because of the gusset, once the sack is filled with product, the bottom folds out and is automatically created. The sacks are easy to palletise and have a box-like shape with strengthened sealed corners. The closure of this type of bag can either be affected by sewing or sealing with hot melt adhesive. The Korsnas system supplied to Regal Molle uses the hot melt system and this enables a good seal to be made once the sack has been filled to allow a good shelf life. This makes them ideal for supermarket displays. The sacks for the Korsnas system can accommodate volumes from 1 to 10 litres.

Valve sack

The Valve Sack is an ideal packaging for flour-based products. The valve sack can be filled under pressure for optimum filling speed. The sacks are best constructed from strong porous paper which allows excess air to escape easily from the sack after filling. The new filling line in Regal Molle is designed to fill sacks ranging in capacity from 3 to 150 litres. The sacks may have a variety of different valves from automatic closing to sealed closing systems, which can be sealed after filling and settling of the contents to allow the product a long shelf life.

About the company

Cerealia develops, manufactures and markets cereal-based food – flour, breakfast, cereals, pasta, bread etc. It is one of the major food groups in the Nordic region. The company’s domestic market is northern Europe, but it also exports to other parts of the world. The organisation consists of three business sectors – Cerealia Mills, Cerealia Foods and Cerealia Bakeries. Cerealia also has a company for research and development, Cerealia R&D AB. The group includes many well-known brands, for example Nord Mills, Kungsörnen, AXS, START!, Bageri Skogaholm, Schulstad, AMO, HavneMØllerne, Hatting, PaaskebrØd, Skoga, Korvbrödsbagarn and Regal.