August 2024

Low Profile Sanitary Bulk Bag Discharger Design with Combo Hopper for Ascorbic Acid & Calcium Carbonate

Application Notes & Case Studies /

NBE provided a sanitary bulk bag discharger with a combo hopper and u-trough agitator designed to fit into a low headroom location. The upper frame utilized NBE’s low profile design along with NBE’s low profile bag hanger. The unit was constructed from 316 stainless steel for product contact along with 304 stainless steel for non-product contact. A NEMA 4X watershed enclosure along with stainless steel conduit was provided to handle the washdown requirements in between product changeover. NBE also designed and provided an all stainless steel operator platform.

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Lift and Seal Drum Dumper with Integrated Flexible Screw Conveyor for H3 Aluminum and AP Powders

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Customer required a drum discharger and portable screw conveyor to contain dust while discharging and conveying. The area was rated general area, but the material is considered an explosive, so the system utilized anti-static tubing for the conveyor and was bonded and grounded.

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Forklift Bulk Bag Discharger for Potassium Nitrate Salt

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Customer needed to transfer potassium nitrate by weight to a downstream mix tank. Due to the agglomerated nature when its discharged out of the bulk bag, a heavy duty Crumbler was required to break the material down to its original Prill state so it could be pneumatically transferred. The NBE scale package and Crumbler were tied to the customers transfer system for a controlled weight transfer to the mix tank.

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Five-Station Bulk Bag Discharging System for Polymer & Fiberglass

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Each station included a hoist and bag hanger for loading the bulk bag into the discharger frame, pneumatic pinch valve, untie box and a transition hopper to a customer supplied gate valve for open and close metering into customer supplied refill feeders. The footprint of each discharger was reduced to 60”, to minimize the overall space required. One bulk bag discharging station included actuated doors and is fully enclosed for additional operator protection from material exposure.

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Bulk Bag Discharger with Dual Screw Transfer and Dual Container Fill Station for Aluminum Oxide

Application Notes & Case Studies /

NBE was asked to evaluate an existing bulk bag discharger that a customer had repurposed and was experiencing rate and severe “house cleaning” issues. The existing bulk bag discharger was not designed to handle the challenging characteristics of aluminum oxide. The main issues are picking up and transferring the material as well as lacking any type of dust containment. The discharge of the screw conveyor included a cardboard fabricated dust collection hood over a container fill station. After our on-site evaluation, we completed material testing at our Innovation Center to further analyze the aluminum oxide handling issues and completed material transfer (rate) and densification testing. NBE was asked to provide dust collection, increase throughput and maximize the material volume in each container. To increase the rate, we supplied an agitator hopper, dual discharge screw conveyors feeding two separate fill stations that included independent scales. A central dust collection system located on the bulk bag discharger was provided to control and reclaim any captured dust. The NBE system is filling 33%more material per container and double the throughput. Understanding the application requirements, NBE conducted a test with the customer at our Innovation Center and Application Workshop. We used a bulk bag discharger with integral lump breaker (with screen), along with a screw conveyor, to unload the bag and process it into a consistent supply of material. The salt was broken down back to nearly original particle size. The customer was thrilled with the outcome.

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Rotary Batch Mixer Facilitates Proprietary Nutraceutical Processes

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The company’s products range from anti-aging supplements and sports nutrition to vitamins and meal replacements. The company has developed proprietary manufacturing processes that rely on a model 700-TS-50-SS Rotary Batch Mixer from Munson Machinery. Most batches include one or more liquid additions, which are introduced into the 50 cu ft (1,416 L) mixer through spray bars with exchangeable spray tips, enabling the addition of aqueous and oil-based liquids by the liter or milliliter and as a fine vapor. The spray bars operate in conjunction with subsystems for heating and cooling the liquids and dehumidifying and pressurizing the mixer vessel.
In the case of nutraceuticals, another clear goal is the removal of all possible contaminants, including products of previous processing: bits of paper and bag liners, closures, scale from processing equipment upstream, etc., that ends up in the product fraction.

Whether a particular ingredient requires sifting/screening, scalping, de-lumping or conditioning to create a homogeneous powder ready for blending, manufacturers generally have a choice of these innovative technologies.

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Sifting and Screening for Sluggish Nutraceutical Powders

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Given that we are discussing “sluggish” powders possessed of a very high angle of repose, the whole challenge is to transfer the precise energy necessary which would allow the good product material particles to pass through the screens as efficiently as possible.

In the case of nutraceuticals, another clear goal is the removal of all possible contaminants, including products of previous processing: bits of paper and bag liners, closures, scale from processing equipment upstream, etc., that ends up in the product fraction.

Whether a particular ingredient requires sifting/screening, scalping, de-lumping or conditioning to create a homogeneous powder ready for blending, manufacturers generally have a choice of these innovative technologies.

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Security Screening and Deagglomeration of Nutritional Supplements Prior To Batch Blender

Application Notes & Case Studies /

An international processor of nutritional supplements needed a compact in-line solution to security screen and de-agglomerate a multitude of ingredients before they entered a V-blender for final mixing. The customer was utilizing a Quadro Vac®to vacuum transfer the ingredients from a bag dump station, loaded by operators, to the V-blender. The ingredients were loaded via various bag and drums and an in-line security screening method was necessary to catch any impurities before they entered the V-blender. The customer wanted a unit that could be quickly integrated into their process with minimal changes, and be simple in design so it could be easily cleaned.

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Dry API and Excipient Handling for Continuous Pharmaceutical Dry Granulation and Direct Compression Tableting Processes

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The proper proportioning of pharmaceutical ingredients is critical to the overall blended product quality and subsequent efficacy of the drug compound. Therefore, the accuracies of the feed and subsequent continuous refill technologies are critical. Typically, Coperion K-Tron Twin Screw Pharmaceutical Design Loss-in-Weight (LIW) feeders in conjunction with Coperion K-Tron P-Series vacuum receivers are used for this purpose.

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Solid Dosage Form Manufacture via Twin Screw Extrusion

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The application of continuous extrusion via twin screw extruders (TSE) for pharmaceutical solid dosage form production is growing in popularity as a preferred option to more traditional granulation techniques. The TSE offers several advantages as a method of granulation formation including continuous processing with reproducibility and combination of a variety of process steps within one piece of equipment, i.e. distributive and dispersive mixing, granulating and devolatilization. The production method provides gentle product handling at short residence time and low temperature. Two methods in which the extruder is used for solid dosage form production are wet granulation and hot melt extrusion.

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