Spiroflow, Clitheroe, UK, recently supplied West Midlands-based industrial adhesives manufacturer Chemique Adhesives with an automated system for batching powdered raw materials used in the formulation of bonding agents. The powder was previously normally tipped from sacks and fed into a mixer by an operator from a mezzanine platform. Unable to determine the rate at which raw materials were fed into the mixer, this practice tended not only to result in variable batch running times, but with powder often spilt during loading.

To resolve these problems, Spiroflow introduced a conveyor system to automate the batching process. This comprises a sack tip hopper on the ground floor into which bags of raw materials can be loaded. Connected to a hopper is a model 80 screw conveyor feeding a 75mm aero-mechanical conveyor, elevating the raw materials directly into the mixer. The conveyor system is controlled electrically.

The key benefit of the system is that the loading speed of the raw materials is governed by the conveyor, so batch consistency can always be maintained. From a safety perspective, as raw materials are now loaded on the ground floor, the solution eliminates the need for staff to climb the mezzanine to manually load the mixer. With the dust-tight conveyor transferring the product into the mixer, the installation provides a much more efficient and cleaner workflow.

“The whole system has resulted in a cleaner working environment and every batch now runs for the same amount of time,” said Simon Cashmore, operations manager at Chemique Adhesives. www.spiroflow.com

 

The Spiroflow automated batching system at Chemique Adhesives
 

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