MACHINERY | BULK MATERIALS HANDLING
Right: A forklift positions a bulk bag alongside a Flexicon BFH-C-X bulk bag discharger at a Spanish plastics recycling plant
applications can also be trialled on large and small scale in the Technical Centre. Batching is of particu- lar interest for clients exploring high-precision applications. Brabender says the individual testing lines can be retooled independently to allow an entire process to be simulated for a customer.
Below: Connecting the bag spout to a Flexicon Spout-Lock clamp ring, which is
mounted on a Tele-Tube that promotes material flow
Increased efficiency Equipment maker Flexicon recently supplied materials handling equipment to a Spanish plastics company that collects, sorts and recycles plastic scrap using a recompounding process that involves compounding the recycled resin with a powder mineral additive and then pelletising. Previously, operators manually loaded 25kg sacks of the 10 micron particle size mineral powder into a hopper, from which the material gravity fed into the com- pounding extruder along with the recycled material. The process was slow, laborious and dusty. Using a bulk bag discharger and pneumatic con- veying system supplied by Flexicon, the powder is now discharged automatically from 700kg bulk bags and conveyed to the extruder pneumatically at high rates. Manual handling has been reduced dramatically, with operators only having to change bulk bags once or twice per shift. This frees them up for higher-value tasks. In addition, the new
system generates little or no dust. The process starts with a forklift positioning a bulk bag alongside the Bulk-Out model BFH-C-X bulk bag discharger, from where a hoist and trolley suspended from a cantilevered I-beam lifts the bag into position on the discharger frame. The clean side of the bag spout attaches to the clean side of a Tele-Tube telescoping tube by means of a Spout-Lock clamp ring. The tube maintains constant downward tension on the bag as it empties and elongates, easing material flow into the 226 litre hopper and containing dust. A Flow Flexer agitation device raises and lowers the edges of the bulk bag to aid the flow of mineral powder into the hopper. An agitator is also installed in the hopper to promote the flow of material into a rotary valve at the pneumatic conveyor inlet. A Power-Cincher flow-control valve cinches the bag spout concentrically, allowing partially empty bags to be tied off and removed with no leakage. The operator reports that the flow-control valve allows more flexibility in production, as a partially emptied bulk bag can be removed and replaced with another material required for producing a different type of plastic pellet. The 75mm diameter, 38m long stainless steel
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