Scale and Bagger Loader Platform

A multihead weigher portions snack product and drops it into a bagger directly below, so the scale has to sit high above the floor. This platform carries the scale system and, just as importantly, gives people a place to stand while they work on its many buckets and load cells. Access was most of the platform’s job. I also integrated a vibratory feeder stand, a feeder chute to the bagger, and two conveyors set to the heights of a cooling tunnel and a transfer plate.

The most interesting constraint had nothing to do with load. Built as a single weldment, the platform wouldn’t fit through the door of the building it was going into. So I designed it to come apart: corner leg weldments, knee braces, a stair assembly, and demountable railings all bolt together, and blind bolts tie it into the existing platform. Blind bolts make a structural connection from one side only, which simplified the design and let the whole structure be carried through a normal doorway and assembled in place. Trading welded stiffness for bolted assembly meant designing every joint as a real connection, but it got the structure where it needed to be.

The blind bolts turned out not to be reusable in any meaningful way, and they weren’t cheap. I had chosen them specifically so the structure could come apart, and ended up with connections that didn’t want to go back together a second time. On a one-off platform, that was only an annoyance, but on anything meant to be taken apart more than once, I would choose differently. I learned that knowing a fastener’s real limits matters more than the connection detail itself.