Big Bag Theory

Condepols, a European leader in Big Bags and D-Bulks

Condepols is a Spanish company with more than 40 years of experience in the transport, logistics and distribution sectors, with a focus on the manufacture and sale of Big Bags and D-Bulks. Its mission is to offer innovative and efficient solutions to its customers, who are located around the world. Its philosophy is to act as a partner, helping customers improve productivity in a company area as sensitive as the storage and transport of goods.

Condepols is a clear example of how an enterprise located in southern Spain can become a major player thanks to continuous research and the development of new products for the market. The result is that its solutions are leaders in the industry and are trusted by customers like Repsol, Cepsa, Azucarera Ebro and Columbian Carbon. Furthermore, the company is characterized by its solid presence internationally, since 60% of its turnover comes from foreign markets, with strong activity in Europe and the Americas.

In terms of business areas, Condepols specializes in Big Bags or container sacks, such as its D-Bulks. Big Bags are recipients for storing large quantities: up to 2,000kg of a granulated product. They are particularly useful in construction, agriculture, the chemical industry, pharmaceuticals — thanks to their great strength and ease of handling. However, the company has wanted to go further, offering its customers added value. With this commitment, it has created special products like the NOPALLET, AQUABAG and fire proof Big Bags.

The NOPALLET is unique in the market, and in fact has been recognized for its usefulness in Spain. Its main advantage is that, due to its special shape, it is not necessary to use pallets to transport it when users do not wish to use slings or loops. This is a revolution as regards saving materials and space at the customer’s facilities.

It is very simple to use because the key is to keep the position of the truck’s forks equidistant from the centre of the bag. Furthermore, Condepols’ technical department will give advice during in situ trials.

There are a number of advantages associated with this system, although the one most often mentioned by the companies who use it is the €4 saving for each unit, since there are no pallet costs. It is also more productive, since the same activities are carried out using fewer resources. Since pallets are not necessary, it is possible to make better use of space at facilities, and it also increases the practical load of transport vehicles. Studies carried out conclude that, for example, for a 6m lorry, it is possible to increase the load by 750kg, stacked on two levels, thanks to the system’s special stability.

Other benefits include the strength of the fabric (240 g/m2) and a strong ecological advantage, since it means forest timber is not used for making more pallets.

Another of the brand’s star products is the AQUABAG, a flexible container for fluid materials. Once full, its exclusive design allows the recipient to stay rigid and stable in all kinds of transport and storage conditions, meaning they can even be stacked on top of each other in two levels.

This product is ideal for liquids, viscous fluids and fluidized solids like cements or chemical products. Each has a capacity of between 500 and 1,000 litres. Another advantage over its competitors is that it is reusable and customizable, since made-to-measure designs can be ordered, choosing from a wide range of multiple valves and internal bags.

As part of this range, Condepols offers the RIGID AQUABAG, which incorporates all the advantages offered by the solidity of the classic Big Bags.

Furthermore, Condepols’ R&D department has created polypropylene fabrics with special bactericide properties that can eliminate 99.9% of bacteria coming into contact with the Big Bags.

Condepols also has launched a new Big Bag with an external prefixed polyethylene liner. It’s a new model with an external polyethylene fixed liner that, once filled the big bag, allows a complete waterproofing keeping the inside clean, hygienic and protected from damp. Once at the final customer's warehouse, removing the external bag, the big bag can get into the facilities thoroughly cleaned of any dirt taken during transport or storage.

Other outstanding products are the Durapols Type C Conductive bag and the Durapols Q-bag, recognized for their optimized fabrics. Condepols has increased the watertightness of the stitches of this kind of product, improving its stability and reducing the risk of smiling. Furthermore, research has beendone into the production of raffia with conductive properties to create certified containers like the Type C ones, which meet the most demanding IEC:2004 61340 – 4 – 4 standards.

The intralogistics professional BEUMER has expanded its product portfolio with the rotating filling machine BEUMER fillpac R. This machine, designed for capacities of 300 to 6,000 bags per hour, can fill all types of valve bags. The complementary bag placing technology for all common bag types rounds out the product portfolio. The weight accuracy of the bags is guaranteed by a calibratable weighing unit.

Together with a special bag placer, the BEUMER fillpac R can fill even woven polypropylene bags. The three-position cylinder that regulates the coarse and fine flow is protected from dust, because it is positioned vertically and outside of the dirty area. The cylinder for bag discharging is also located in the dust-free zone above the filling spout. This solution minimizes wear and tear on both cylinders and therefore ensures longer service life. BEUMER has also equipped the optimized filling machine with an automatic bag weight correcting device. This device automatically adjusts the weight of subsequent bags.

Almost all built-in components of the BEUMER fillpac R are freely available commercially. This reduces delivery times for spare parts and lowers capital costs for the user. Also, the system is designed so that it is easily accessible for maintenance. The generously dimensioned filling impeller reduces fill times and therefore increases throughput without impairing weight accuracy. The BEUMER system is also equipped with an ergonomic control panel.The improved human-machine interface concept makes work simple and intuitive.

The BEUMER Group is an international manufacturer in intralogistics in the fields of conveying, loading, palletizing, packaging, sortation and distribution technology. Together with Crisplant a/s and Enexco Teknologies India Limited,

A new Flexicon Bag Dumping System with glove box, bag compactor and flexible screw conveyor, isolates bulk material from the operator and plant environment throughout opening, dumping and compaction of bags, and the conveying of material downstream.

Bags are staged on a stainless steel tabletop and then transferred through a plastic strip curtain into a dumping enclosure comprised of a glove box, empty-bag chute and dust collector atop a receiving hopper.

The dust collector maintains negative pressure within the enclosure, preventing the escape of dust through the curtain, while containing dust generated during bag opening and dumping activities.

A bag infeed chute through the sidewall of the enclosure allows the operator to pass empty bags directly into the bag compactor, causing dust generated from compaction as well as dumping activities to be drawn onto the system’s two filter cartridges.

An automatic reverse-pulse filter cleaning system releases short blasts of compressed air inside the filters at timed intervals causing dust build-up on the outer surfaces to fall into the hopper, conserving useable product. Filters are readily accessed by removing the interior baffle, and replaced rapidly using quick-disconnect fittings.

The compactor employs a large pneumatic air cylinder to compress bags into a removable bin that accommodates 50 to 80 bags.The main waste access door, and a flapper door within the bag infeed chute, are equipped with safety interlocks that prevent operation of the compactor unless both doors are closed.

The hopper discharges into an enclosed Flexicon flexible screw conveyor for dust-free transfer of a broad variety of products including free- and non-free-flowing materials from large pellets to sub-micron powders, including products that pack, cake, seize, smear, fluidize, break apart or separate, with no separation of blended products.

Mondi’s industrial bags plants FSCTM and PEFCTM certified

Seventeen of Mondi’s industrial bags plants have successfully been chain of custody certified according to FSC and PEFC standards as of February 2013. This multi-site certification was chosen to answer the growing market demand for paper bags certified for sustainable forestry.

This certification is in line with the market demand for sustainable packaging. Mondi’s FSC and PEFC certified bags present clear, informative labelling, and have already built a loyal customer base since their launch in 2008. Customers can now ensure their packaging is certified and issued from sustainable sources and gain increased flexibility if delivered from these plants.

“The chain-of-custody certification for FSC and PEFC is an excellent additional benefit for our customers,” explains Claudio Fedalto, Sales & Marketing Director, Mondi Industrial Bags. “It is important for us to offer our clients a large range of certifications from process management and hygiene to sustainability aspects — that’s why we continuously invest in these areas,” he says.

All in all, 17 plants located in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain are now certified to FSC and PEFC standards

ABOUT FSC AND PEFC CERTIFICATIONS

Both, the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) promote sustainably managed forests through independent third party certification. This offers customers and consumers the option to choose products from environmentally and socially responsible and economically viable forestry.

Mondi Industrial Bags, a business segment of Mondi’s Europe & International Division, is a leading international producer of industrial paper bags, selling around four billion bags per year. Thanks to its broad range of bag specifications, Mondi Industrial Bags serves major industries including cement and building materials, chemicals, food, feed and seed. The business segment operates a dense sales and service network, the specialized filling equipment department Natro Tech, as well as its Bag Application Centre, where researchers develop and test innovative packaging solutions.

ABOUT MONDI

Mondi is an international packaging and paper group, with production operations across 30 countries and revenues of €5.8 billion in 2012. The group’s key operations are located in central Europe, Russia and South Africa and as at the end of 2012, Mondi employed 25,700 people. Mondi Group is fully integrated across the packaging and paper value chain, from the growing of wood and the production of pulp and paper (packaging paper and uncoated fine paper), to the conversion of packaging paper into corrugated packaging, industrial bags, extrusion coatings and release liner. Mondi is also a supplier of innovative consumer packaging solutions, advanced films and hygiene products components. Mondi Group has a dual listed company structure, with a primary listing on the JSE Limited for Mondi Limited under the ticker code MND and a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange for Mondi plc, under the ticker code MNDI. The Group has been recognized for its sustainability through its inclusion in the FTSE4Good Global, European and UK Index Series (since 2008) and the JSE’s Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index since 2007.The Group was also included in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index for the third year and in CDP’s Carbon Performance Leadership Index (CPLI) for the first time in 2012.