In today’s highly competitive pharmaceutical, food, and consumer goods industries, manufacturers are under constant pressure to increase throughput, reduce labor dependency, and improve overall production flexibility. While significant investments are often made in high-speed primary packaging equipment and sophisticated secondary packaging solutions, one critical bottleneck is frequently overlooked: the connection between these two stages.
This gap—often referred to by engineers as the “last meter” between inner and outer packaging—can quietly undermine the efficiency of an otherwise automated production line. Bags exit flow wrapper packing machine or stick packing machine in a disordered, bulk state, while downstream cartoner demand precise, orderly, and counted input. The result is often manual intervention, temporary buffering, product rehandling, and unnecessary risk.
Rather than functioning as a standalone machine, they act as an intelligent, high-speed connection hub that transforms chaotic product flow into a continuous, synchronized, and fully automated process.
1. Why Sorting and Counting Matter?
In many factories, especially those operating across multiple floors or constrained layouts, Bags must be manually transferred between packaging stages. Operators lift, stack, and reload bags or counter, introducing several challenges:
Inconsistent feeding speeds
Counting errors and quality risks
Increased labor costs
Higher contamination and product damage risk
Reduced overall line efficiency
A sorting and counting machine eliminates these issues by consolidating buffering, orientation, spacing, and counting into a machine. The result is a smooth material flow that aligns perfectly with Industry 4.0 principles: automation, data continuity, and process reliability.
2. How a Full-Servo Sachet Sorter Counter Working Principle
Unlike traditional vibration-based or purely mechanical systems, a full-servo solution relies on precise motion control, coordinated drives, and intelligent software logic. The high speed sorter counter machine integrates 11 high-performance servo motors, all orchestrated by a centralized motion controller.
Rather than pursuing speed alone, the machine is engineered around dynamic speed matching, ensuring gentle handling at low speeds where needed and high-precision operation at critical transfer points.
2.1. Gentle Accumulation and Intelligent Feeding
The process begins at a wide-mouth, low-incline accumulation hopper. Products—whether sachets, small pouches, or blister cards—arrive from upstream equipment in a completely random orientation.
Instead of forcing alignment through vibration or aggressive mechanical action, a slow-running belt at the base of the hopper gently guides products toward the lifting and feeding mechanism. Servo control ensures that only a controlled quantity of bags enters the next stage, preventing congestion, overlap, or compression.
This approach significantly reduces noise, wear, and product deformation—an important consideration for thin sachets or delicate blister packs.
2.2. High-Speed Sorting Through Servo Control
Once lifted into the core sorting area, bags pass onto a high-speed roller platform. Here, sorting is achieved not through complex guide rails, but through carefully calibrated differences in roller speed, direction, and friction.
Multiple servo motors dynamically adjust these parameters, allowing bags to naturally separate, reorient, and space themselves as they move forward. Side guides assist the process without exerting damaging pressure.
For applications requiring extremely high accuracy, an optional machine vision system can be integrated. Cameras instantly identify product orientation and, if necessary, instruct downstream actuators to correct alignment—ensuring consistent presentation before counting.
2.3. Precise Spacing and High-Accuracy Counting
After sorting, bags enter a servo-driven synchronous belt system. Using encoder feedback and real-time motion control, the system accelerates or decelerates individual bags to achieve uniform spacing. Each item then passes through photoelectric sensors at high speed, enabling non-contact, error-free counting even at rates of up to 450 packs per minute.
Because the system relies on motion synchronization rather than mechanical timing, accuracy remains consistent even during speed changes or short production interruptions.
2.4. Flexible Discharge Modes for Seamless Integration
One of the defining advantages of a full-servo bag sorting and counting machine is its adaptability at the discharge end. Through the human-machine interface (HMI), operators can switch between multiple output configurations to match downstream equipment requirements:
Horizontal transfer: Bags are pushed smoothly into a cartoner magazine
Vertical orientation: Bags are stood upright for insertion into cartons
Batch stacking: A predefined number of bags is stacked and transferred as a single group
Each discharge motion is controlled by an independent servo axis, allowing precise synchronization with cartoners, case packers, or overwrappers. This “zero-pressure” transfer minimizes jams, wear, and downtime.
3. The Intelligence Behind the Speed
Although the system can achieve extremely high throughput, its real strength lies in how it manages speed across different zones. The accumulation area runs slowly to protect products, the sorting zone operates at variable mid-range speeds, and the counting and discharge sections run at high speed with extreme precision.
This coordinated speed profile—managed by a single motion controller—is what allows the system to remain stable, quiet, and reliable even under demanding production conditions.
4. Wide-Ranging Applications Across Industries
Thanks to its flexible handling and gentle sorting logic, this type of system is widely used across multiple sectors:
Pharmaceutical Industry: Blister cards are a classic challenge: flat, lightweight, and easily scratched. The system separates, counts, and feeds them directly into automatic cartoners, eliminating manual handling. It is equally effective for sachets containing powders or granules.
Food Industry: Seasoning packets, sauce sachets, and snack pouches can be grouped and counted for multi-pack cartons or case packing, significantly improving throughput in convenience food production.
Personal Care and Cosmetics: Face mask sachets, shampoo samples, and wet wipe packs benefit from the system’s gentle handling and clean design, ensuring an attractive final presentation.
Medical and Industrial Products: Sterile pouches, diagnostic kits, and even small non-food industrial packets can be processed with high accuracy and traceability.
In all cases, the machine replaces a labor-intensive buffer zone with a compact, automated module.
5. Upstream and Downstream Integration
An effective intermediate machine must do more than process products—it must communicate and cooperate with the entire line.
Upstream Connectivity: The accumulation hopper can accept products from conveyors, chutes, elevators, or robotic systems. Integrated level sensors communicate with upstream machines via I/O signals or fieldbus protocols. When the hopper approaches capacity, upstream equipment is slowed or paused automatically, preventing overflow.
Downstream Synchronization: For high-speed lines, deep control integration is essential. Using servo following and high-speed communication protocols such as EtherCAT or PROFINET, the sorter’s discharge axis can synchronize precisely with the cartoner’s motion. This millisecond-level coordination eliminates waiting times and mechanical clashes.
Data Continuity: Beyond physical movement, the system can transmit count data, batch information, and production status to downstream machines or MES platforms, supporting full traceability and compliance.
결론
As manufacturers move toward smarter, more connected factories, the importance of seamless material flow cannot be overstated.
A full-servo bag sorting and counting system transforms disorder into order, interruption into continuity, and manual handling into intelligent automation. By quietly and efficiently bridging the gap between primary and secondary packaging, it becomes an essential rhythm controller within the modern packaging line—one that delivers measurable gains in efficiency, reliability, and long-term operational value.
