Flexicon (Europe), Whitstable, UK, has supplied a bulk bag discharger together with a pneumatic conveying system to a plastics processor in Tarragona, Spain. This company sorts and recycles plastic scrap, which involves compounding and pelletising of resins using a mineral additive in powder form. Previously, operators manually dumped 25kg sacks of the 10μm mineral powder into a hopper. The process was slow, laborious and dusty. Now, the powder is discharged automatically from 700kg bulk bags and conveyed to the extruder pneumatically at high rates, with reduced labour and little or no dust using the new Flexicon Bulk-Out® model BFH-C-X bulk bag discharger and a Pneumati-Con® pneumatic conveying system.

 

The 75mm diameter, 38m long stainless steel conveying line delivers up to 1000kg/h of the material to a filter-receiver and receiving hopper above the extruder. The mineral powder is separated from the air stream by a filter-receiver that includes a 220 litre capacity receiving hopper. Four air-jet fluidizers in the bottom of the hopper promote the flow of material as a volumetric feeder meters it into the extruder. System operation is under PLC control, including timed filter cleaning, starting and stopping the pneumatic conveyor based on level sensor readings, and opening and closing of valves. In 2015 Flexicon (Europe) opened a branch office in Barcelona (see EBS News for week of 27 May 2015). www.flexicon.co.uk 

 

 

Mineral powder flows dustfree into the hopper and into the 38m long pneumatic transfer line; a filter-receiver (below) separates the powder from the air stream, before discharging it into the extruder