Our customers are often faced with the problem that raw materials cannot be delivered in the desired containers.
Therefore, the question often arises:
How do I get the product into my desired container?
A company from the pharmaceutical-chemical sector faced exactly this challenge and had to transfer 5 different granules with a fine dust content from 200l drums into small containers of 10-15 liters without causing any product contamination. During the subsequent processing, the small containers were subjected to a special heat treatment in order to remove foreign particles from the raw material.
Until now, the operator had to open the barrel and prepare the liner for the connection of a special lid including an emptying funnel with manual valve to allow filling of the small containers. The barrel was then placed in a lifting and tipping device and rotated by 180°. The small containers could then be filled manually via the ball valve on the emptying lid.
This process proved to be very time-consuming and cleaning-intensive. In order to eliminate the very time-consuming insertion of the drums into the lifting and tipping device, the granules are now sucked out of the drums directly from above using a suction lance. Since the respective products are to be processed by type, a separate vacuum conveyor system was purchased for each granulate. This enabled both productivity to be increased and cleaning effort to be reduced.
The special structure of the vacuum conveyor, and the technical control monitoring the process, allow for a less labour-intensive operation. There is always a defined buffer volume below the discharge valve, which is monitored by a level sensor. As soon as the product falls below the desired level, new granules are automatically fed in via the intelligent control system. The filling of the small containers can therefore be carried out without interruptions, from changing the barrel and cleaning, via a ball valve located at the outlet of the vacuum conveyor.
To ensure a smooth transition to the new automated process, not only was the conveyor system installed and put into operation during the 2-day start-up, but extensive hands-on training was also provided for the future operators. In addition to the basic functionality, further detailed knowledge of preventive maintenance was imparted.
The enormous simplification of the newly introduced decanting process was once again expressly emphasised by the customer.
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