Understanding the Concept
Direct blender loading offers major advantages over the manual charging of blenders, and also offers additional benefits over conventional conveying methods too.
As shown above, a direct loading system offers greatly improved efficiency over the more commonly used ‘suck-and-dump’ type of receiving hopper, instead using the blender itself to pull a vacuum and draw the material from ground level. The direct loading method reduces the number of moving parts and improves efficiency by reducing convey times as the system operates on a continuous transfer. The conventional hopper is replaced with an inlet port on the blender, which the material charges into directly and continuously.
A second port is used to connect to the vacuum source, via a precautionary filter hopper for capturing minimal product carry-over.
Once the loading procedure is complete, simply remove the connecting pipes and cap-off the ports (these blanking caps are often available as standard parts from your blender supplier, or alternatively Hanningfield can provide bespoke caps to fit any type or size connection).
Direct blender loading offers a real-world lean solution, with increased throughput, reduced waste and reduced downtime, with ‘contained transfer’ making the working environment cleaner and safer.
The Loading Process
1. Product Receiving Line: Material is drawn from the drum/sack at floor level, into the product receiving line.
2. Product Inlet Port: The product receiving line connects to the Product Inlet, where the material passes into the blender.
3. Vacuum Line Port: This port connects to the vacuum line, enabling the vacuum source to pull a vacuum on the blender.
4. Filter Hopper: This line passes through a filter hopper, which prevents any ‘carry-over’ material from passing to the pump.
5. Vacuum Line: This connects the filter hopper directly to the vacuum source.
Increased Throughput
There are two alternatives to direct blender loading; manual loading or conventional vacuum conveying with a ‘suck and dump’ cycle.
Manual handling can be slow, awkward and sometimes dangerous. Often for manual loading, the operator will use a platform to reach the inlet of the blender. This involves carrying a heavy sack or drum up a flight of stairs, before attempting to pour the contents of the drum into the inlet, exposing the operator to the material and increasing the opportunity for spillage. Alongside the apparent hazards, the manual loading process is slow, limited to the speed with which the operator can manually ascend, load and descend the platform stairs. Usually, the operator will be able to load no more than 25kgs, with each completed journey taking about 5 minutes. This limits the loading capacity to 300 kgs/hr, whereas a direct blender loading system can achieve up to 3,000 kgs/hr.
The direct loading system also offers an advantage over conventional vacuum conveying. The continuous conveying method dispenses with the need for a typical loading and discharge cycle. This dramatically increases throughput as the conveying time is dedicated entirely to charging.
Reduced Waste
Direct loading also offers a fully-contained method of transfer, and even the material pick-up can be contained if necessary. This minimises spillage and contamination, whilst also protecting the operator from exposure to the product.
Reduced Downtime
As there is no receiving hopper, and very little product ever migrates to the filter hopper, the need for cleaning is minimised. When cleaning is necessary, the hopper can be easily-detached from the bracket for clean-down whilst the blender is in operation. This keeps downtime to a minimum, and helps to ensure the hopper can be ready for the next batch once blending is complete.
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