Sanitary Bag Dump Station Discharges Material By Weight

May 15, 2009
Flexicon Corp. introduces a Sanitary Bag Dump Weigh Batch Station with integral mechanical conveyor. The system collects dust created during manual dumping of bulk materials from bags, boxes, drums and other containers, and discharges bulk material by weight. A high velocity vacuum fan is said to draw airborne dust from the operator's atmosphere onto two cartridge filters. Automatic reverse-pulse filter cleaning maintains efficient, continuous operation by releasing short blasts of compressed plant air inside the cartridge filter on alternating cycles, causing dust build-up on the outer filter surfaces to fall into the hopper. Filters are readily accessed by removing the interior baffle, and replaced using quick-disconnect fittings. The hopper discharges into an integral flexible screw conveyor supported by a boom that cantilevers from the frame of the system, the entire weight of which is supported on four load cells, allowing loss-of-weight batching. When an operator selects a batch weight and initiates a cycle, a controller runs the flexible screw conveyor, first at high feed rate, then at dribble feed rate, stopping material flow once the accurate batch weight has been discharged. A mechanical hopper agitator improves the flow of material into the intake adapter of the flexible screw conveyor, which handles both free- and non-free-flowing materials that pack, cake or smear, with no separation of blended products. The system is constructed of stainless steel finished to sanitary standards, and is also available in mild steel with durable industrial coatings.