Packing operations across the globe in the cement, building materials and food industries experience significant flexibility and efficiency gains from HAVER & BOECKER’s new RADIMAT PATHFINDER® Edition. The PATHFINDER conveyor system transfers bags from HAVER & BOECKER’s RADIMAT® — a fully automatic empty bag separation and application device — to the ROTO-PACKER®, a fully automatic packing machine. It overcomes space constraints, allows for full automation of the packing line and improves health and safety. The PATHFINDER even allows operations previously unable to accommodate a bag placer to install a RADIMAT automatic bag applicator.

“Customer success is at the forefront of our design process at HAVER & BOECKER,” said Frank Ormeloh, head of HAVER & BOECKER Machinery Division’s Cement Business Unit. “It’s why we’re so pleased to offer a solution to improve flexibility in the packaging process while also boosting efficiency, reducing maintenance and improving worker safety.”

Operations can customise their setup flexibly to accommodate the available space by curving the PATHFINDER’s route. With a total length of 20 meters (65.6 feet), the PATHFINDER even allows plants to position the RADIMAT and ROTO-PACKER in separate areas.

An entirely automated line curates a safer, more productive work environment. The PATHFINDER efficiently and accurately conveys each bag from the RADIMAT to a single-bag feeder at the end of the line which then places each bag precisely onto the packing machine’s filling spouts. The PATHFINDER allows operations that didn’t previously have room for a bag feeding device to implement a RADIMAT. With the PATHFINDER, workers are removed from the potential hazards created by dust development. Maintenance tasks on both the ROTO-PACKER and RADIMAT are easier thanks to the extra room available around the machines. All of this combined creates a safer and healthier work environment.

The PATHFINDER complements HAVER & BOECKER’s full line of automated packing solutions from empty to full bag, starting with the AMICUS® Depal which automatically and precisely depalletises empty bags onto the RADIMAT. The PATHFINDER then transfers them to the ROTO-PACKER and the AMICUS® Pal palletises and prepares the filled bags for shipping.

For those producers currently applying bags by hand who want to take the journey to automation in phases, the PATHFINDER Edition can also be implement in a simplified version without the use of a RADIMAT. Rather than having to place the bag on the actual spout, operators simply feed the bags into the conveying system itself, which then applies the bag to the spout automatically. In this situation, the worker experiences many of the safety benefits of the fully automatic system.