The manufacture of industrial adhesives involves the use of a wide variety of ingredients each with their own inherent flow problems.
Materials such as Zinc Oxide & Lithium Carbonate have extremely poor flow characteristics whilst products such as Gelatine, Melflux and Blast furnace slag need only occasional assistance to get moving.
A well known adhesives manufacturer in Staffordshire uses a total of fourteen different ingredients housed in fourteen discharge hoppers on one section of his production plant.
Each of the fourteen hoppers was fitted with live bottom Bin Discharges that had been designed and constructed to handle a dedicated product.
Problems arose as production increased and it was necessary to use each hopper to handle any of the ingredient materials.
To overcome serious hold ups in production due to hopper blockage and non- delivery of ingredient materials, a system design change was necessary.
Process Components Ltd were approached to offer a solution to these serious flow problems and after carrying out a series of trials on the majority of ingredient materials, each hopper was modified to incorporate a pair of MUCON Promoflow Discharge Aids.
‘Promo-Flow’ Discharge Aids are the flagship of Mucon’s flow promotion devices for problematic dry bulk solids stored in hoppers and silos. They comprise internally mounted screens or grids actuated by externally mounted pneumatic vibrators. These powerful devices move difficult products by transmitting vibration directly into the material – and not into the bin. Accordingly, they are efficient, effective and quiet in operation. They have the added advantage of being easily retro-fitted to existing bins or silos, requiring minimal work to the container itself.
The installation of the MUCON Promoflow discharge aids immediately overcame the customer’s discharge problems.
An easy answer to what was a sticky problem.
Mucon’s range of discharge aids complements their well known range of Iris Diaphragm Valves with which their name is synonymous. The combination of discharge aids to get products moving and valves, to control (or stop) the flow, truly gives Mucon ‘The Power to Control Powders’.
