Conveyor with Sluggish Product
The Process Challenge
A customer came to S. Howes to fix a problem conveying sticky, damp powders. They had tried a flexible screw conveyor, and the flexible screw could not keep up with the rate they needed to feed material into the screw; the customer had concerns with the flex-screw conveyor shaving off parts of the conveyor and contaminating their food product.
The Solution
Our split tube conveyor, with an agitated ribbon hopper, was the answer. Our agitated hopper moved the material quickly into our split tube conveyor. The material is then conveyed through the conveyor to the discharge at a 45-degree angle easily and without the possibility of contaminating the product since our shafted screw conveyors do not let the auger drag on the conveyor body like a flexible conveyor. And when the customer is ready to clean the unit, they just open up the body of our sanitary split tube conveyor and clean it out.
Click to watch a short video of the test contrasting both hopper types with this difficult product.
The Result
The system met the company’s requirements for processing difficult-to-handle product.