Second Packing Plant Added

Back in 2011, Online Rock Salt was still in its infancy. Our first bags were packed using a largely manual process — effective, but limited. Robots, of course, handle repetitive tasks far more efficiently.

The bagging line we introduced shortly afterwards used a pick-and-place system. The bags were pre-formed, so the plant only needed to fill them and seal the top. Today, we use a completely different method: form, fill and seal, where each bag is created on the spot from a roll of pre-printed film. You can see the old process between 20 and 56 seconds in the video.

That early line was a valuable stepping stone. Robotics comes with a surprisingly steep learning curve, and we learnt a lot before transitioning to our more modern systems. One challenge was the product itself — sensitive electronics and salt don’t mix particularly well, which led to a few teething issues.

Interestingly, this second line was actually built into an articulated lorry trailer so the packing plant could be moved wherever the salt needed packing. For example, white salt could be packed directly on the quayside instead of transporting it from the harbour to our base. This saved significant road miles but required maintaining a dedicated packing team on a remote site.

The original (short) article is below, and the video offers a snapshot of how things used to be done.

After the unprecedented demand for salt this winter we’ve added another bagging line to our operation! Here is a short demonstration video:

This new line will massively increase our output capacity, and enable us to serve even more customers who need to stock up on their rock salt supply for the winter.

All our packs are weighed and stacked robotically ensuring a consistent product is pallet after pallet.