If you’re in the business of packaging goods, chances are you have a complex line of machinery for getting your product into the appropriate packages and shipped off to your customers. If you manually weigh out each package, or you have to put multiple ingredients into the same package, a combination weigher might be a great help for you and your business. They have the ability to not only streamline the packaging process, but also make it more fast and efficient, thanks to having the functionality to weigh multiple ingredients and ensure consistency in each package.

What Can a Combination Weigher Do For You?

Since vertical form fill sealing machines work by bagging product from a hopper, it makes sense that they’d pair perfectly with used checkweighers—weigh stations that instantly read how much product is in a package to ensure consistency. The combination of the two machines can save your company a significant amount of time and may allow for reallocation of work for employees who manually fill and weigh packages. It may also lead to increased output for your business.

If you package your goods into bags that need to weigh the same amount, combiweighers are a perfect solution for getting consistent results every time. The hoppers can contain the product until it’s ready to be weighed out into packages, and once the packages are prepped, each head of the weigher weighs the proper amount before dispensing into a package. These machines are especially helpful for multiple-ingredient packages—for instance, a cereal that has two kinds of grain flakes, plus almonds and cranberries will need four heads to complete one package. Each head can be set up to weigh out a specific amount so that the more expensive ingredients aren’t overfilled. This can, in turn, save you money by way of ensuring you don’t use too much of the pricier ingredients before running out of the “filler” ingredients.

What Brands are Best?

There are a number of manufacturers that specialize in combination weighers. Some of the more well-known brands include:

• Bilwinco
• Combi
• Ishida
• Multipond
• Yamato

These are just a few of the brands that offer combination weighers. Some have been in business for several decades, and are dedicated to manufacturing some of the most reliable weighers on the marker.

Should You Consider Used?

If you’re unsure of whether a combination weigher will be worth the investment or are worried about going over your budget for equipment, it’s important to know that you have the option to purchase used machines. Buying used machinery is an easy way to save a significant amount of money without having to sacrifice quality. Many people think that used equipment means they’re inheriting equipment that was returned for defects, but the reality is that used equipment is often simply no longer needed by its original owner for one reason or another, and still have a lot of years of use left in them. Do your company a favor: add efficiency and save time and money by purchasing a used combination weigher.

If you decide to implement this equipment in your company, make sure you take the time to fully train your staff, so that all of your efforts toward efficiency aren’t lost because people don’t know how to operate the machinery. Once your employees know how to work with the new machines, you’ll be able to enjoy a more efficient process for packing, and you may even be able to take on more work because it takes less time to package and ship your goods.