This company has introduced a new manual dumping system with integral conveyor and separate dust collector (photo), which is suitable for dairy powders, pharmaceutical products and contamination-sensitive bulk foods. Designed and finished to 3-A sanitary standards, the system is composed of a manual dumping station with a surge hopper, a flexible screw conveyor and a support boom on a caster-mounted frame, plus a separate, mobile dust-collection system that can be configured alongside or remotely. The mobile system can serve multiple functions throughout the plant, and then be rolled to a washdown station and storage area. A dust hood is mounted to the floor hopper with quick-release clamps, and is equipped with an internal baffle and air-vent port for efficient dust collection. A support tray allows operators to stage manual additions from handheld sacks before dumping material through a grate fabricated of powerful rare-earth neodynium-iron-boron magnet material. The hopper is equipped with a mechanical agitator assembly to promote uninterrupted flow into the charging adapter of a 10-ft flexible screw conveyor with a stainless-steel screw engineered to handle the conveyed product. Fully enclosed in a polymer tube inclined at 45 deg, the flexible screw is the only moving part contacting material, and is driven by an electric motor beyond the point of discharge, preventing material contact with the motor shaft seal. — Flexicon Corp., Bethlehem, Pa.
A portable conveying system for pharma and food products
| By Mary Page Bailey