Tea bag packing is shaken not stirred

Finlays, the UK's largest packer of own-label tea, is using a versatile Schubert automated packing system incorporating a robot programmed to shake out and evenly distribute tea bags in cartons during the packaging process.

Schubert's TLM rapid packing line has 10 two-axis robots including one which is specifically designed to gently shake the contents of each carton at the filling stage.

The system at Finlays' tea packing facility at South Elmsall, near Doncaster, is being used to pack five different pack sizes containing 80 to 240 bags that are fed in from a series of tea bag machines at the rate of 8,000 a minute.

Cartons are erected from flat blanks at two stations and transported to the machine's central loader where they are filled with tea bags. The boxes are then closed with attached inner and outer lids.

Contact: Schubert UK; Tel: 01676 525825