Application Notes & Case Studies

Product Saver Automated ADCA (Azodicarbonamide) Bag Opening System

Application Notes & Case Studies /

A large plastics compounder needed an automated bag opener for one of their additives for making automobile parts. The product being run on the bag opener is difficult to handle manually and is very dusty causing housekeeping issues within the plant. Customer needed automation that would eliminate the operator performing the bag opening process, and a sealed system that would contain dust and emissions. In addition, NBE had to customize the design allowing the system to fit into a designated area with numerous dimensional constraints. Sealed bags are placed on an infeed conveyor belt and conveyed to the bag opening system. From this point forward the process is completely automated. Bags are opened precisely by the cutting head, product separated and screened by the rotary drum, allowing the product to be conveyed to the process and the empty bags compacted within a screw compactor. Flexible screw conveyors were utilized to convey the product from the bag opener. The screw conveyors were also designed for total product containment and overall product metering to the process. System controls were also provided with this project.

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Portable Lift and Seal Drum Discharger for Polymer Prills

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Customer receives drums of prills from a raw ingredient supplier that need to be dumped into a liquid mix tank through an 18” manway that is 42” off the ground. After a series of tests at our IC and visits to the customer facility, NBE provided a custom portable Lift & Seal system. Features of the system include fork pockets for portability, roller gate, four (4) thumpers on the drum carriage to aid the flow of material, and an upgraded hydraulic system that will enable the equipment to cycle a minimum of 17 (max of 20) drums per hour, continuously for up to a total of 160 drums per batch.

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Portable Vertical Mixer for Plastic Regrind and Plastic Pellets

Application Notes & Case Studies /

This 65.5 ft3 Whirlwind mixer is designed with casters and fork pockets to be portable. The customer has multiple processing locations that does not allow for permanent equipment. The portable design provides flexibility when loading, mixing and unloading at a specific processing station. The mixer has two discharge methods, a 3” vacuum probe connection and a 6” Gaylord drain tube with manual slide gate. The equipment does not need air and the customer provided the power cord for connection to the control panel.

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Box Filling System for Plastic Pellets

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The customer came to NBE in need of a more automated gaylord box filling line for plastic pellets. Plastic pellets were being stored in a remote larger hopper and needed to be pneumatically conveyed over to a surge hopper that would then feed a box filling line. NBE provided a surge hopper on the filling line with a pneumatic pipe connection for the convey line. Plastic pellets were then blown into this surge hopper from the remote hopper. A dust vent cartridge filter was provided for displaced air from the surge bin. A flexible screw conveyor was provided to meter the plastic pellets from the surge hopper to the box filling line. The box filling system consisted of load cells and densification. Boxes are filled to a preset weight with complete bulk/dribble functionality. When the boxes hit the target weight the auger would shut down, densification would level the product in the box, and boxes would index out from the filling station to a set of gravity accumulation conveyors. Two (2) powered infeed conveyors were provided so that boxes on pallets could be staged for filling. Indexing of the boxes was built into the NBE supplied PLC program. This complete system was engineered, manufactured, and commissioned by NBE to the customer as part of the overall project.

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Modular Bulk Bag Unloader Forklift Frame for Ceramic Powders

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The customer needed to discharge and screen ceramic powder from supersacks and fill back into supersacks or surge bins. This bulk bag discharger includes a removable upper frame with bag hanger, bag support pan, and forklift pockets. This allows to a minimum load height for operator safety and provides additional loading provisions when working with ceiling height restrictions.

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Belt Feeders for Metering Silica Flour

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Given the small powder-like particle size of silica flour, it can be extremely dusty if it enters the atmosphere and could cause health issues if inhaled. The KWS belt feeders are totally enclosed using heavy-duty gauge steel and dust and weather tight. The enclosed design also aids in minimizing housekeeping concerns. The material flow from the storage silo must be contained to provide accurate metering of the silica sand to the finishing mills. The flow is controlled using an adjustable sliding strike-off plate fabricated from abrasion resistant steel. The strike-off plate prevents the material from free-flowing down the belt and controls the material depth on the belt. When combined with the KWS hammer style roller slide gates mounted between the storage tanks and belt feeders’ inlets, high metering accuracy is achieved.

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Exterior Coatings Producer Blends Abrasives With No Shaft Seal Wear

Application Notes & Case Studies /

When blending the coatings, ingredients are added to the 100 cu ft (2.8 cu m) ribbon blender in several steps. First, liquid acrylic polymer and water are metered by a pumping system. While the blender is running, 50 lb (23 kg) bags of pigments and fillers, together with various pre-weighed chemicals, are manually dumped into the blender. Next, pre-weighed aggregates are added from self-dumping hoppers using a forklift. Typically, the blend contains about 25% liquids and 75% solids.

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Complete Bagging & Packaging Line for Cold Patch Asphalt

Application Notes & Case Studies /

B Metcalf Paving has recently purchased an automated system for bagging and palletizing cold patch asphalt. The Incline Auger Packer gross weigh scale and TRP3000 Palletizer make operation simple and efficient.

With a single man operation the gross weigh scale will fill up to 3 bags per minute and with two operators the scale can fill up to 6 bags per minute, handling various bag types and sizes. Each bag is sealed, knocked down, and flattened before being sent to the TRP3000 palletizer to be picked and placed on the selected pallet stacking location.

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System Flow Diagrams – Nylon, Carbon Black, Calcium Carbonate, Ground Rubber, PE, PP, PET, Regrind, PVC, Polymer, Resin, Polystyrene, Titanium Dioxide, PEX

Application Notes & Case Studies /

Coperion K-Tron example flow diagrams for various plastics applications including the handling of Nylon, Carbon Black, Calcium Carbonate, Ground Rubber, PE, PP, PET, Regrind, PVC, Polymer, Resin, Polystyrene, Titanium Dioxide, and PEX

System Flow Diagrams – Nylon, Carbon Black, Calcium Carbonate, Ground Rubber, PE, PP, PET, Regrind, PVC, Polymer, Resin, Polystyrene, Titanium Dioxide, PEX Read More »

Biaxially-Oriented Film Production

Application Notes & Case Studies /

There is a clear trend in specialty film production to multilayer film types, where more and more co-rotating twin screw extruders are utilized. This enables film manufacturers to simultaneously feed a large variety of additives directly into the extruding process, increasing flexibility and reducing production costs. This is very beneficial in the production of multi-layer high barrier films, balanced shrink films, etc.

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