Shrimp Feed Automatic Bagger in Portugal

Why This Shrimp Feed Plant Needed a Belt-Fed Bagger

The customer's packaging problem occurred after extrusion and post-processing rather than during feed manufacture. Finished shrimp feed passes through drying, oil coating and cooling before it reaches the bagging bin. Compared with larger dry livestock pellets, these products are smaller and can contain both surface oil and fines. Their flow behavior can therefore change according to pellet size, coating rate, temperature after cooling and the percentage of broken particles.

A belt feeder gives the operator controlled material delivery to the weighing hopper without mechanically pushing pellets through a screw. It was selected for this project because it provides a practical balance between gentle handling and controlled feed rate. This does not mean every shrimp feed automatically requires belt feeding. A sufficiently dry, free-flowing aquafeed may also work with another configuration, so feeder selection should always follow an actual material assessment.

DCS-50P Capacity and Packaging Specifications

The T/H equivalents are calculated from bag weight and filling cycles; they are not the actual production rate of the Lisbon-area plant. Because the upstream shrimp feed production line produces approximately 3 T/H, the bagger normally works below its maximum theoretical tonnage. This reserve allows the filling section to keep pace without becoming the new bottleneck.

Bag Weight Accuracy Must Be Calculated Correctly

The DCS-50P Automatic Packing Machine reference dynamic accuracy is approximately ±0.2% under suitable calibration and product conditions. For a 10 kg bag, this corresponds to approximately ±20 g. For 20 kg, it is approximately ±40 g, and for 25 kg, approximately ±50 g.

Those figures are reference tolerances rather than promises that every bag will always remain at exactly the same deviation. Pellet bulk density, fines content, belt cut-off, vibration and calibration all influence actual weighing performance. The customer therefore uses routine check weighing, particularly after switching between products with different particle sizes or bag weights.

Different Shrimp Feed Sizes Enter the Same Packaging Section

The plant packages several physical feed forms. Fine post-larvae products can be approximately 0.5–1.0 mm, juvenile feeds around 1.0–1.5 mm, while larger shrimp pellets can be approximately 1.8–2.0 mm. These are finished-feed dimensions entering the bagging section, not raw-material grinding sizes.

The small particle size matters because broken crumbles and pellet fines can behave differently from intact larger pellets. If the percentage of fines rises, bulk density and flowability can change. The operator therefore checks both feed condition and bagger settings rather than assuming that one belt speed is suitable for every shrimp feed SKU.

Oil Coating Changes Flow Behavior

Shrimp feeds commonly contain added oils, but the amount and surface condition vary by formula. In this project, some products contain approximately 6–8% total fat and receive post-processing oil application. The important issue for the bagging machine is not the nutrition value of that oil but its effect on the physical surface of the finished feed.

Surface oil can make small pellets and fines less free-flowing and can increase residue on contact surfaces over time. The belt feeder therefore requires routine cleaning and inspection. Excessive buildup should not be allowed to remain until it affects belt traction or material flow. Cleaning frequency is established from actual operation rather than a fixed daily or weekly promise.

Bag Closing Depends on the Actual Packaging Material

The customer uses multiwall bags appropriate for aquafeed distribution, including formats with an inner polymer liner where additional moisture protection is required. For lined bags, the inner liner can be heat sealed and the outer bag sewn where that closure configuration matches the selected packaging material.

RICHI does not treat heat-plus-sew as mandatory for every shrimp feed bag. Closure design depends on bag construction, liner type, storage environment and distributor requirements. Sealing temperature must likewise be established from the actual polymer liner rather than copied from one universal temperature table.

Why the Bagger Fits an 8,000 T/Y Plant

The factory's annual shrimp feed production is approximately 8,000 tonnes. At a 3 T/H production rate, that represents roughly 2,670 effective processing hours per year. If the plant operates around 300 days annually, the average is approximately nine effective production hours per day.

The DCS-50P therefore has more instantaneous filling capacity than the upstream line requires, which is appropriate for a packaging section. The customer does not need the bagger to operate continuously at 6–8 bags per minute; it needs enough reserve capacity to accept feed whenever the finished-product bin calls for packaging.

The complete packaging output can still be limited by bag placement, sealing, sewing, conveyors or pallet handling. For this reason, theoretical bagger T/H is not presented as guaranteed palletized-product output.

Integration with the Existing Shrimp Feed Line

The new bagger is installed after the customer's existing extrusion and finishing process:

Extrusion → Drying → Oil Coating → Cooling → Screening → Finished Feed Bin → DCS-50P Weighing and Filling → Bag Closing → Conveyor → Pallet Handling.

This sequence is important because feed should be properly cooled and screened before packaging. The bagger cannot correct excessive fines produced upstream, nor should warm feed be packed simply because the filling machine has sufficient throughput. Stable product condition entering the finished-feed bin helps both weighing accuracy and packaging quality.

Shipping from Qingdao to Setúbal

The Shrimp Feed Automatic Bagger in Portugal was prepared for export from Qingdao, China, with the Port of Setúbal used as the destination before inland transport toward the Lisbon-area plant. Setúbal has multipurpose terminals capable of handling general cargo and containers, making it a practical equipment-entry option for this project.

Before shipment, RICHI reviews installation height, finished-feed-bin outlet, electrical connection, compressed-air requirements, conveyor position and the selected bag-closing arrangement. Because the DCS-50P replaces one machine inside an existing line, matching these interfaces is more important than supplying unnecessary upstream or downstream equipment.

A 3 T/H Shrimp Feed Packaging Upgrade in Portugal

This Shrimp Feed Automatic Bagger in Portugal project uses one DCS-50P belt-fed machine to serve an existing approximately 3 T/H specialty shrimp feed line. The plant manufactures around 8,000 T/Y and packages products ranging from fine shrimp feed crumbles to approximately 2 mm pellets in 10 kg, 20 kg and 25 kg bags.

The DCS-50P provides approximately 6–8 bags/min reference filling speed and ±0.2% reference dynamic weighing accuracy. For project bag sizes, this corresponds to approximately ±20 g at 10 kg, ±40 g at 20 kg and ±50 g at 25 kg. Its belt feeder was selected around the actual small-pellet, fines and surface-oil characteristics of the customer's shrimp feed.

For another aquafeed producer selecting a shrimp feed bagger, RICHI Machinery needs the feed form and particle size, oil or coating condition, fines percentage, bulk density, required bag weights, actual T/H, bags per minute, bag construction, closing method, existing bin height, conveyor arrangement and compressed-air conditions. These parameters determine whether a belt-fed DCS-50P or another weighing and feeding configuration is the better match.