Toshiharu Kageyama, mechanical engineer with Ishida Research and Development in Japan, was awarded the 62nd Kyoto Inventors Award for an oval-shaped 18-head multihead weigher.

With high-speed vertical form fill seal (VFFS) packaging machines to effectively support high-speed bagmaking, product has to be evenly and consistently fed to all weigh hoppers. If product feeding to each hopper is inadequate, high-speed bagmaking can become impossible because of a lack of available combination heads. 

To solve this issue, Kageyama devised a method to rotate the approach route of product to hoppers by using vibration. As a result, product feeding to areas that were difficult to feed now became possible. Additionally, Ishida developed its unique “Back to Back” feeder that distributes products equally to two weighing inlet chutes from a single supply conveyor, as well as the oval-shaped multihead weigher that allows an optimum discharge route to twin VFFS packaging machines. These three elements enable high speed weighing of up to 280 weighments per minute.

With this technology, one oval shape weigher does the job of two weighers, providing significant footprint and cost savings. These technologies are patented in Japan, with more than 350 units installed in packaging lines for snacks, biscuits and vegetables factories worldwide. Kageyama was also involved in the development of Ishida’s Atlas VFFS bagmaker, and he is now involved in developing the next-generation Ishida multihead weigher.

Heat and Control (heatandcontrol.com) is the exclusive supplier of Ishida industrial weighing, packaging and inspection systems in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.