August 2024

Automated Tray Filling System for Poor Flowing Powder

Application Notes & Case Studies /

An operator places a rolling tote with 20.5 cubic feet of material that weighs approximately 2500 lbs. of lime and ferroalloy materials for discharge into a Argon Oxygen Decarburization (AOD) vessel in a Alloy Manufacturing production facility. Production design calls for 6 discharges per hour performance, rotating 150 degrees with a chute extension designed to raise up to meet the fixed carriage chute to direct material flow into the AOD. Once the process is complete the discharger lowers both the carriage and the chute extension after the AOD vessel has moved out from the loading position by the operator, all while operating in a continuous 120-degree F. environment.
The unique operating environment also requires special heat shielding and specialized hydraulic operating designs to live where the section of the machine is susceptible to highly aggressive flames due to chemical reactions of material entering the vessel upon discharge. The two-part chute (fixed and pivoting) was a challenge to the previous design due to the maximum swing arc for ceiling restrictions and AOD vessel load positioning. This evolutionary design helped solve the dimensional constraints.

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Automated Tray Filling System for Poor Flowing Powder

Application Notes & Case Studies /

For this application, a repeat NBE customer was looking for help in adding some automation to a very manual process. The customer is making brake shoes. The customer would manually fill trays with 26 lbs of the brake pad material that would then be placed on carts and transferred to a press line where the shoes would be molded. For this new process, NBE proposed a semi-automated process where the raw material, received in the customer’s rolling tote, is discharged into the process using a high lift sealed container discharger. The material is discharged into a loss in weight feeder system that is designed to accurately provide the desired batch amount. The customer will manually stage 10 empty trays, 5 per side, into the infeed conveying system. The empty trays are indexed into the filling zone where the ingredient is metered in. The filling system incorporates a sweeper inside the tray that moves from side to side while filling to provide a uniform fill level in the tray. A pneumatic pusher mechanism then pushes the filled tray onto an accumulation conveyor system where the operator can then remove them and prepare them to go to the press.

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Container and Bulk Bag Filler for Glass-Filled Polypropylene Pellets

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The system will allow the customer to fill both bags and containers with glass filled poly pellets. We feature a large surge bin with 80 cubic feet of capacity, filling station with connections for both bags and container, three operator platforms and integrated controls to work with both NBE and customer provided equipment.

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Magnetic Separation for Mining and Aggregate Production

Application Notes & Case Studies /

In aggregate and mining applications the need to remove ferrous often comes down to protecting processing equipment like conveyors, screens and crushers. Tramp metal, like bucket teeth, that get best solution for removing damaging tramp metal in mining and aggregate production. However, when it comes to which type of magnet, that depends on the specifics of your application. How prevalent is tramp iron in your product? What type Overhead Magnetic Separators through can cause catastrophic damage and costly downtime while you’re forced to make repairs. The other benefit that magnetic separation provides is enhanced product purity

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Metal Seperation at a Sugar Cane Refinery

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Due to high humidity and the adhesive nature of sugar, the customer’s existing magnets were
incapable of providing ferrous metal capture or processing equipment protection. Magnetic tubes, which were supposed to capture contaminants, were instead coated in sugar and, as a result, when cleaning occurred by actuating tubes through stripper seals, the seals were cracking and falling into the “pure” product stream. Additional contaminants were simply “washed off” the tubes because of the weakness created by the sugarcoating and air gap.
IMI demonstrated the mechanical advantages of IMI’s unit side-by-side versus their current housing;
the IMI unit pull-tested stronger- with nearly 40% more holding power.

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Custom Drag Conveyor for Hot Pellets in Cargill Animal Feed Plant

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Cargill is one of the largest producers of animal feed products in the world, generating over 20 million tons of feed per year. Cargill feed products support livestock production that ultimately touches the plates of more than one billion people every day. Cargill Animal Nutrition in Ogden, Utah required a custom replacement drag conveyor to handle hot pellets fed directly from their pellet mill. The existing equipment was located within a highly confined area, making the outer dimensions of the replacement drag conveyor critical. The pellets also needed to be conveyed downstream while maintaining their shape and avoiding damage. KWS designed and engineered a long-lasting custom conveying solution for Cargill.

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Powderization of Dried Chili Peppers

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Chili pepper is a “hot” spice used in the majority of Mexican-style dishes. The size reduction of chili pepper is limited by the hard chili pepper seeds. These hard seeds are very difficult to mill. Therefore, it is important to select a screen with holes that are slightly larger than the chili pepper seeds. Also, chili peppers are heat sensitive. Therefore heat rise may be a concern at a finer particle size.

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Extruded Breakfast Cereal Manufacture

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Coperion K-Tron highly accurate feeders and pneumatic conveying systems are used for transfer, weighing and feeding to the mixer and/or the extrusion step. In addition, Coperion provides food components that fulfill the highest demands in hygiene ,easy cleaning and gentle product handling. Coperion high efficiency extruders are usedfor the production of a variety of cereal types, including cold formed pellets for flaked cereal, direct expanded and coextruded cereals, as well as puffed cereal types. Innovations in material handling and extrusion for RTE cereal manufacture are an integral part of the overall Coperion systems solution.

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Screening Lumps and Foreign Particles from Sugar

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Each of the high-capacity VIBROSCREEN units can screen up to 36 tons/hr. The rate at which material passes through the screeners depends in part on the last time they were cleaned. In conformance with GMP requirements, SBS cleans the screeners with steam and hot water either once a week or after a load. Personnel inspect the screeners after every loading operation to see if immediate cleaning is required. All material contact surfaces are of 304 stainless steel.

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