#Product Trends
Machine accessibility in the tobacco industry
A producer of tobacco-related products, from raw tobacco handling/treatment to ready-to-sell products such as cigarettes and pouched tobacco had a requirement to create better access throughout their tobacco pouching lines.
What they wanted was a reliable and compact solution that would eliminate walking times for operators and give better access to materials.
Inclined conveyors would take up too much valuable floor space and so were no option. Wedge conveyors were also ruled out as an alternative because these need to be set per product run and placed unwanted pressure on the pouches. The pouches are too small for a platform elevator and so a spiral conveyor was the obvious alternative.
Spiral conveyors offer continuous transportation and no more complex movement than with a normal conveyor and so were a good match for their expectations.
In fact, the AmbaFlex Portal ONE solution exceeded the requirements. For example, it offers much more simplicity than a conventional walk way made out of two traditional spirals with a bridge conveyor. Importantly, there are also less costs because there is only one drive instead of 3. This also results in less wiring, less installation work and a low energy consumption.
But maybe the most important extra is the low cost of ownership. Not only regarding the reduced maintenance, but also because of the greater machine availability or system uptime. This is due to the fact that a Portal ONE consists of only one belt that goes up and down through both spirals and the bridge conveyor in one go. The risks of product jams or loss of orientation on high level are therefore simply eliminated because there is no product transfer that could cause a bottleneck.
The Portal One is available with a belt width ranging from 100 to 300mm. The two Portal One’s that were installed for this client had a 140mm wide belt. The Portal ONE solution is patented and available exclusively for AmbaFlex customers.
One more proof of AmbaFlex’s leading position in Spiral Conveyor solutions.
