In this photo, an operator at Sazón ensures a clamp ring makes a dust-tight connection while a telescoping tube applies downward tension on a bulk bag of seasoning, promoting flow and release of powder.
Flexicon
What You Will Learn in This Story:
How weigh batching systems can significantly reduce worker fatigue.
Why automating powder processing increases productivity per shift.
How many packets of seasoning and bouillon Sazón Goya produces each year.
Sazón produces bouillon powders and varieties of Sazón Goyaseasonings for Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the U.S. The original product line was launched in Puerto Rico in 1973 and moved to Goya’s Miami-area facility in 1983.
Workers at that Miami plant previously loaded herbs, spices, salt and seasonings manually into three ribbon blenders, each with a working capacity of nearly 3,000 lb. The job required lifting, cutting, and dumping several dozen bags per batch, for 21 batches over an eight-hour shift. “Dumping 50 lb bags of seasoning for every batch is not easy work,” says Hiram Carlo, plant manager at the Sazón facility.
Goya’s Miami-area Sazón plant produces more than a billion seasoning and bouillon packets per year.Flexicon
Due to ongoing sales growth, Sazón added two more packaging lines and two blenders to the operation in 2019. The company also installed five identical bulk weighing and batching systems from Flexicon Corporation—one for each blender—to add high-volume ingredients in many of the 19 seasoning and bouillon recipes.
Back to Basics: Understanding the flow of powders and bulk solids.
Each of the batching systems combines a bulk bag discharger and a flexible screw conveyor that feeds the ingredient into a pneumatic conveying line 55 ft long. The result of adding Flexicon’s efficient, labor-saving equipment has been an increase of 12.5% in production of blends per shift.
Powder processing simplified through automation
The process begins when one-ton bulk bags of seasoning 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 clamp ring atop a 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 of the seasoning.
Here are three of the five bulk weighing and batching systems at Sazón’s Miami-area plant, each comprised of a bulk bag discharger on load cells, that move seasoning from bulk bags through a pneumatic conveying line to five blenders.Flexicon
The seasoning, comprised of fine white crystals, flows into a 5-cu-ft floor hopper charging an integral 5 ft long, 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 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 the seasoning. “We just input the information into the panel, say 2,000 pounds, and that’s it,” Carlo says.
Upon receiving the signal, the inclined flexible screw conveyor feeds the seasoning into the pickup adapter. From there, the material travels 55 ft horizontally and 15 ft vertically to a 24 in. diameter filter-receiver that discharges into a 2.5 cu ft hopper.
Here, an operator at Sazón uses a pendant to hoist a bulk bag and roll it into position.Flexicon
Delivery of the seasoning 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 downspouting, 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 of seasoning and bouillon are formed and filled with 5 to 10 g of material, and heat-sealed at rates of 1,000 to 1,500 per minute.
The packets are inserted into a carton that passes through a checkweigher, is coded, and moves to an accumulator for placement into a master case. In the final step, two palletizers consolidate the master cases for shipment.
Less labor, higher output
By adding five Flexicon weighing and batching systems, Sazón can operate two shifts that process 35 seasoning and bouillon batches per shift—compared to 21 batches previously—with only five operators needed for batching, blending, packaging, and shipping.
Blended batches of seasoning and bouillon powder are gravity discharged into a polymer surge hopper and flexible screw conveyor that feeds a packaging machine. The fully enclosed system prevents contamination of the product and facility environment.Flexicon
“We package more than a billion [seasoning and bouillon] packets a year now, and we’re much more comfortable,” notes Carlo. “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.”
Looking ahead, Carlo says Goya has identified a satellite facility near the Miami-area plant, where Sazón can add production capacity, “and build on the automation work done with Flexicon to test new procedures that will reduce material handling and enhance food safety and quality control initiatives.”
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