An important part of any production line—especially in the food packaging industry—is weighing the product before packaging it. Whether you’re packaging produce, poultry, frozen foods, or other hard-to-handle products, weighing equipment that is fast, accurate, reliable, and space-saving is key.
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Combination weighers are standard for a variety of industries that need a weighing machine. Also known as multi-head weighers or radial scales, these machines are easy to operate and make the packaging process more efficient without sacrificing accuracy or speed.
The name for this equipment comes from how a multi-head weigher calculates combinations—in other words, the machine uses a combination of weigh buckets filled from several head configurations to meet the product’s weight requirements.
These weighers are intended for products that require efficient and highly accurate weight measurements.
Multi-head combination weighers calculate and measure bulk products into smaller increments before packaging to ensure each container meets a targeted weight.
First, bulk product is fed into the combination weigher. Each head configuration has its own dedicated load scale, so the process starts when the product is funneled through the top of the machine and then into the center of each load scale.
The load scales dispense the product into a series of feed pans. These scales control the flow of the product so that the feed pans are not overwhelmed.
The feed pans vibrate, which gently moves the product from the center of the machine toward the weigh buckets around the edge of the scale. The intensity of this vibration can be increased or decreased as needed—sticky products may require stronger vibrations to get the product moving, while free-flowing products need a minimal amount of vibration.
After the feed pans distribute the product into the weigh buckets, they stop vibrating and wait until there are empty weigh buckets to fill (see Stage 7).
Each weigh bucket has its own load scale that is constantly weighing the amount of product fed into the bucket. These scales take precise measurements at an extremely high accuracy rate.
Once the amount of product in each weigh bucket has been measured, the machine calculates the best combination of buckets to reach the targeted weight.
The selected weigh buckets simultaneously dispense the precisely measured product into the whatever packaging system is in place—whether that is an automated packaging machine or a person manually packaging the product.
The feed pans automatically open and fill the empty weigh buckets (see Stage 3), and then the cycle continues.
Multi-head combination weighers provide two critically important benefits to packaging production lines: speed and accuracy.
Standard combination weighers have between 10 and 24 heads. Since each of the heads on the machine are constantly replenishing and measuring the bulk product fed into the multi-head weigher, the machine moves much faster than a production line relying on a manual scale.
Adding additional head configurations means the machine has more options to create combinations that equal the targeted product weight, leading to an even faster system.
The load cells of combination weighers are extremely accurate, down to fractions of a gram. Unlike linear scales that may encounter issues with weighing clumps, multi-head weighers calculate portions of the product, making the weight measurements more accurate.
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Also known as
combination scales
,
multi-head weighers
use a number of different weigh heads to generate precise measurements of products by calculating the weight in each weigh head. Each weigh head has its own precision load cell.
At a basic level, a multi-head weigher takes bulk product and weighs it into smaller increments according to the weights programmed into its software.
That bulk product is fed into the scale through the infeed funnel at the top, generally via an incline conveyor or a bucket elevator.
Diagram of Multi-Head Weigher Parts
The top cone and feed pans vibrate, and gently move that product out from the center toward the buckets mounted around the edge of the scale. The system has various options and software settings which are adjusted for the product and fill weight.
For some applications, the scale will have dimpled steel contact surfaces, which provide less surface area for sticky products – such as gummies – to stick to. The sizes of the buckets also vary based on the product being weighed and the fill amount. While every application is different, bulkier product and/or larger containers generally leads to larger buckets (while the inverse is also true).
Each of the weigh buckets has its own load cell, which are constantly weighing the amount of product they contain, all while product continues to feed into them.
In order to reach the target weight, the software of the scale chooses the sum of a combination of buckets which add up to the correct amount.
The two main advantages of combination weighers are speed and accuracy.
Each weigh hopper is equipped with a highly accurate load cell. This load cell will calculate the weight of product in the weigh hopper. The processor in the multihead Weigher will then calculate the best combination of available weights required to achieve the desired target weight. This is why Multihead weighers are sometimes referred to as Combination weighers.
In addition, a multi-head weigher does not face the same issues with weighing clumps that might be present in a linear scale.
The other main advantage is speed. Because each of the heads on the scale are constantly replenishing and weighing the amount of product they contain, they can move much faster than an operator using a manual scale.
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