Gentle, Clean Transport: CablePro Tubular Drag Conveyor

The CablePro Tubular Drag Conveyor stood out for its ability to gently and efficiently transport delicate products such as cereals, grains, nuts, and frozen foods. This solution offers several key benefits for the food and beverage industry:

• FDA-compliant components and polished stainless steel tubing ensure safe product contact and support strict sanitation standards.​
• Self-lubricating UHMW disks injection-molded onto a pre-stretched, food-grade, stainless steel braided cable with a nylon coating help maintain long-lasting durability and reliable operation.​
• The design is suitable for gentle handling of sensitive materials, including pet food and other ingredients susceptible to damage.​

Efficient Bulk Unloading: Bulk Bag Unloader

Hapman’s Bulk Bag Unloader is engineered for maximum efficiency, safety, and versatility in bulk solids management. The Bulk Bag Unloader offers several important advantages:

• Adjustable frames and robust lifting mechanisms allow for the accommodation of bag sizes up to 4,000 lbs.​
• Integrated dust collection and sealed discharge system keep facilities cleaner and minimize airborne contamination.​
• Automated controls and powered flow aids ensure smooth, consistent discharge for materials prone to bridging, clumping, or sticking, supporting process reliability.​
• Modular, compliance-friendly design makes integration into new or existing operations seamless and straightforward.​

Versatile Conveying: Helix® Flexible Screw Conveyor

The Helix® Flexible Screw Conveyor was highlighted for its capability to address a variety of tasks from transporting powders and granules to batching and blending. The key advantages of this flexible system include:

• Quick-ship availability for select models, with shipping in as fast as 48 hours, helps facilities meet urgent project timelines.​
• A rotating helical screw inside a fixed tube enables efficient movement of materials such as crystals, flakes, and pellets.​
• Ease of maintenance and rapid installation ensure operations run smoothly with minimal downtime.

Decades of Trusted Expertise

Hapman’s participation at PACK EXPO 2025 underscored the company’s commitment to delivering dependable equipment and expert support, backed by 80 years of industry experience. Visitors at Booth N-6060 saw firsthand how these advanced solutions enhanced efficiency, product quality, and operational safety for a wide range of material handling needs.

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A Midwest-based coffee processing company needed an efficient solution for moving ground coffee from rolling storage bins into filling machines. Given the sensitivity of handling ground coffee in a food processing environment, they required a system that maintained product integrity while delivering consistent throughput.

This process supports a new packaging line that runs approximately 4 lbs of coffee grounds per minute. To meet these requirements, the facility implemented two of Hapman’s Series P300 3” Portable Helix® Flexible Screw Conveyors. Each conveyor is 15 feet long and features a U.H.M.W. polyethylene food-grade conveyor casing with a stainless steel flat wire auger. Both Helix® units were custom-engineered with a portable base and an integrated control panel for flexible and efficient operation.

Hapman was selected for its strong industry reputation and proven expertise in food-grade bulk material handling solutions. The primary goal was to procure and commission a reliable, sanitary conveyor system that could seamlessly transfer ground coffee into filling equipment while minimizing downtime and manual labor.

Flexible Screw Conveyor Implementation Process

The integration of Hapman’s Series 300 flexible screw conveyors into the facility’s operations was both streamlined and effective. The equipment arrived ahead of schedule, giving the team a head start on assembly and integration. Upon delivery, the team promptly began assembly to proactively identify and resolve any issues. Installation followed a clear, methodical process: connecting the power supply, integrating the run signal, and attaching the connection tube. Meticulous attention to the assembly instructions was essential, as even small oversights could impact performance. By carefully following Hapman’s detailed guidelines, the team ensured a smooth start-up and long-term system reliability.

Challenges Encountered:
The primary challenge encountered was the meticulous attention needed during the assembly phase. Every small detail mattered to ensure the conveyors operated flawlessly within the coffee processing line.

Key Milestones:

• Successful preassembly before the arrival of other packaging equipment.
• Full integration into the filling machine system, enabling seamless coffee handling and processing.

Ongoing Performance and Future Plans

Since installation, the Helix® flexible screw conveyors have been running exceptionally well. The company reports minimal issues, with only occasional prop rod hinge breakage after prolonged use — a minor concern considering the overall performance.

The customer is highly satisfied with the equipment, noting no setbacks since the original sale. The success of this project has built a strong foundation for future collaboration. They plan to partner with Hapman again when they expand their processing lines, reinforcing Hapman’s role as a trusted provider for bulk material handling and food processing equipment.

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Most Discussed Questions

A consistent theme at the booth was the challenge of feeding minor ingredients into batches efficiently and determining how hand loading can be automated. Attendees from production facilities approached the Hapman team looking for ways to streamline these processes, minimize manual labor, and improve the consistency of their batching operations. These conversations reflected a clear industry trend: bakeries and food processors are prioritizing automation and practical, hands-on solutions for ingredient management.

Showcased Products

Helix® Flexible Screw Conveyor

The Helix® drew the most attention at the show, serving as a true conversation starter and resource for attendees interested in batching and ingredient handling automation.

• Designed for versatility, the Helix® excels in transporting powders, granules, crystals, flakes, and pellets.
• Flexible tube and helical screw design allow horizontal conveying up to 80 feet and vertical discharge heights up to 40 feet, making it suitable for diverse facility layouts and batching requirements.

LP Low Profile Vacuum Conveyor

• Compact footprint that excels in tight, space-conscious bakery environments
• Conveys up to 90 cubic feet per hour, delivering performance without sacrificing valuable production space

Commitment to the Baking Industry

Hapman’s debut at IBIE 2025 highlighted more than just advanced equipment, it demonstrated a commitment to supporting bakeries with practical solutions that tackle everyday ingredient handling and process automation challenges.

With 80 years of experience, the Hapman team remains dedicated to helping customers drive productivity, enhance product quality, and maintain safety across any material handling application. For facilities facing their own batching or conveying challenges, Hapman invites industry professionals to connect and explore how tailored equipment and expert guidance can make a lasting impact on baking operations.

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Customer Challenge: A Pennsylvania-based food manufacturer producing layered high-protein bars, granola bars, baked cookies, breakfast squares, brownies, and other high-protein baked goods needed a safe and efficient way to load various protein powders into a blender located approximately 11 feet above floor level. Additionally, the process required screening of the powders during dumping to prevent any foreign material from entering the batch—ensuring high product quality and consistency.

Hapman Solution: To meet these challenges, Hapman provided a complete material handling system designed for safety, efficiency, and clean operation:

• Series 500 5” Helix Flexible Screw Conveyor

Engineered to convey various protein powders from a floor-level bag dump station to the elevated blender at a rate of approximately 250 lbs/min. The flexible design ensures consistent flow of the material without separation or degradation. The conveyor system is mounted on a portable base with a tilting feature that allows it to be lowered for easy cleaning and maintenance—ensuring minimal downtime and enhanced sanitation.

• Model #30 FL Bag Dump Station with Dust Collector and Screener

This station allows operators to safely dump ingredients at ground level while integrated screening captures and removes any foreign material. The built-in dust collection system maintains a clean work environment by minimizing airborne particles.

Why Hapman: The customer selected Hapman based on a successful previous installation at a different plant location in 2022. The proven performance, reliability, and adaptability of Hapman’s equipment made it the clear choice for this project. The ability to safely load ingredients from ground level, screen for contaminants, and reduce operator exposure were key decision factors.

Conclusion: By integrating Hapman’s flexible screw conveyor system with floor-level dumping, dust collection, and inline screening, the customer was able to enhance operational safety, maintain batch integrity, and support consistent production—all with equipment that is easy to clean and maintain. This tailored solution demonstrates Hapman’s ability to address the specialized needs of food manufacturers handling delicate bulk materials.

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Lightning-Fast Delivery

Our Quick-Ship program offers an unprecedented turnaround time:

• 3″ and 4″ conveyors shipped within 2 days
• Three (3) optional hopper sizes available
• Expertly matched auger type for optimal performance

This rapid delivery ensures that you can respond quickly to shifts in raw material blends, supply challenges, or new product demands without missing a beat.

Customization Without the Wait

Need something more specialized? Hapman has you covered:

• 5″ Helix Flexible Screw Conveyors available (2 weeks)
• Washdown-duty motor options
• Ribbon agitator for challenging materials (3” and 4” models)

These customized solutions can be ready in two weeks or less, allowing you to tailor your conveying system to your specific needs without sacrificing speed.

Why Choose Hapman’s Quick-Ship Program?

1. Flexibility: Adapt quickly to changing production requirements
2. Efficiency: Minimize downtime with rapid delivery and installation
3. Expertise: Benefit from Hapman’s industry-leading conveying solutions

Don’t let conveying challenges slow down your production. With Hapman’s Quick-Ship program, you can ensure that your operations remain agile and efficient, no matter what changes come your way.

Ready to revolutionize your conveying system? Contact our team today to discuss how Hapman’s Quick-Ship program can benefit your business. Call us at (800) 427-6260 or click here to get started.

Stay ahead of the curve with Hapman – where speed meets flexibility in conveying solutions.

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Improving efficiency in batching and blending is simple in concept. All you need to do is produce the most possible product using the least possible resources. That’s easier said than done, but by identifying challenges and applying engineering know-how you’ll find that small steps can lead to great strides in your batching and blending operations.

Efficiency improvements can start small with a single improvement in your process or a design upgrade to a single piece of equipment. A single “win” can get you in the race, be it a way to speed a machine’s changeover, block a material flow obstruction, improve metering accuracy, or remove a bottleneck. Each success leads to another. No matter the scope of your efforts or applications involved, you’ll likely confront some or all these challenges in engineering a solution for you, your process, and your customers:

1.           Inefficient batching process

2.           Poor recipe control

3.           Loss of material

4.           Labor/experience shortage

These challenges are interrelated, and we will discuss them — and solutions to overcome them — below.

1. Inefficient batch processing

Batch processes in any industry share many common efficiency challenges. Inefficient batching can be both the cause and result of production bottlenecks, delays between process steps or machine hand-offs, and overall waste in all its forms.

On the other hand, equipment and process design that addresses the right problems can unlock new levels of process performance. For example, adding a lump breaker can eliminate agglomerations in small-volume metering, or a feeder upgrade can improve dosing accuracy by improving the flow of sluggish granules or powders. (Related reading: Turn Batching Challenges Into a Competitive Advantage.)

In other cases, efficiency can be optimized by rethinking how materials can be moved from Point A to Point B within the constraints of the physical realities of your facility. For example, not all buildings can accommodate mezzanine levels for filling or conveyors to transport materials long distances. In such cases, alternative approaches can provide an efficient solution, as Lawrence Foods, a manufacturer of premium bakery ingredients, learned.

The company needed to pre-weigh bulk bags of powdered sugar from incoming 2,200-pound bags and create two 1,000-pound bags for downstream processing. However, the facility lacked sufficient ceiling height to unload the bulk bag directly into a filler in a single, vertical common frame.

The solution took the form of an integrated system using side-by-side frames incorporating a bulk bag unloader, a 15-foot screw conveyor, and a bag filler to create the 1,000-pound bags of powdered sugar. Weight and process controls ensured accuracy and filling directly onto a pallet enabled easy fork truck removal and transport to production. As a result, the company gained an engineered solution to overcome challenges due to space constraints, bypassing the need to modify its facility. Additional features aid efficiency, safety, dust control, ergonomics, and flexibility for future changes. (Learn the details of Lawrence Foods’ installation by reading  Unload, Convey, Fill, Repeat.)

2. Poor recipe control

Recipe control picks up where batch management leaves off. A lack of comprehensive controls, from accurate measurement to connected digital controls, can lead to many sources of process inefficiency. These include errors caused by manual keying-in recipe parameters, lost time, production bottlenecks, reduced productivity, and increased costs. The solution to these and other weaknesses is digitalization, which enables the additional benefit of recipe management software tools for analyzing accuracy, quality, and other efficiency-related factors.

Many companies rely on manual data entry, which leads to quality deficiencies, product scrap and rework, inefficient labor, and downtime. This can result in losses of $1,000 or more for a 2,000-pound batch. We have seen companies with more than 50 recipes whose operators manually key-in parameters based on information from disparate sources such as clipboards and spreadsheets. In some cases, a vital piece of missing information caused delays, and the lack of efficient tracking documentation during and after processing compromised proper quality control and slowed efforts to improve processing.

Today, process control technology addresses such problems with long-established machine and process control technology. An operator panel connected to the programmable logic controller (PLC) running the equipment stores all recipes. These can be loaded for processing with little more effort than pressing a touchscreen of a menu selection (or even scanning a QR code for a recipe). Improvements can enhance process consistency, product quality, productivity, waste reduction, and more.

Operator interface software also provides alerts and tracks process data for additional uses. These include tracking and trending data for one or more pieces of equipment locally; or using a central workstation to track key performance indicators (KPIs) across a fuller set of operations. Process data can also be presented to multiple users in different roles for different reasons: plant initiatives, vendor remote maintenance services, corporate data analytics, compliance reporting, or any number of good, approved uses. (Click to read an overview of related Controls & Automation solutions.)

3. Loss of material

Material losses can occur anywhere in conveying, handling, and processing — from spills in manual or mechanical handling operations to dust from improperly sealed conveyors. In terms of equipment, bag filling is perhaps the most common source of costly material losses due to excessive overfilling, or product giveaway, to ensure compliance with weight requirements.

In one case, a company was experiencing losses with small, 320-ounce batches of a valuable material costing $1,200 per ounce. To ensure it met weight requirements, the company was overfilling and giving away profits, sometimes by more than two ounces per batch. Once the company identified the problem, the company upgraded to new, more accurate loss-in-weight feeders, precisely controlled overfilling to within 25 grams, and saved approximately $2,000 on each batch.

Loss-in-weight, or gravimetric, feeders are generally preferred for such quality-critical applications, however, volumetric feeders can be used for accurate filling at higher speeds. However, this choice is unlikely if your material’s bulk density varies such as when a hygroscopic material reacts to humidity and/or forms agglomerations. (Related reading: Volumetric vs. Gravimetric Feeder Operation).

Competitive realities typically lead plants to integrate multiple equipment assets with custom engineering and, increasingly, digital automation. One company used both techniques to more efficiently meter controlled amounts of four powdered ingredients. The project included several components including bulk bag unloaders, a dust collector to prevent a separate waste stream and lost product; pneumatic bag agitators to fluidize the material; and a lump breaker to tackle any agglomerations. From there, the powders were ready for loss-in-weight screw feeding

to a slurry tank for processing. The result was that the conditioned materials contributed to the optimal downstream mixing process performance. Process controls and user-friendly monitoring tools further eased the job and reduced labor requirements. (Click for related reading on Bulk Bag Unloading, Pneumatic Conveying, and Material Metering.)

4.Labor/experience shortages

Properly engineered mechanical and automation solutions provide additional benefits for productivity to reduce labor costs and overcome the difficulty of finding and training skilled labor.

Automation brings positive impacts in many ways to overcome labor and productivity challenges. It’s most visible to operators in the form of user-friendly interfaces that ease

tasks and save time. The benefits are also critical for operational continuity as experienced workers exit the workforce, taking their experience and knowledge with them. It also reduces companies’ requirements for up-front training and everyday labor requirements.

When discussing the company that used automation to improve recipe control (Challenge No.2 above), that operation used to require two operators: one to load the batch, and another to manage the recipe. After the automation upgrade, only one operator is needed for that processing station.

Digital automation together with mechanical design features both contribute to labor savings. Material handling equipment that is easy to operate alleviates environmental concerns and promotes health and safety in a processing facility in addition to solving labor challenges. Likewise, today’s equipment designs feature time-saving features that offer easy access for maintenance operations, quick clean-in-place with easy disassembly for cleaning, quick-release features, and more. In turn, digital automation makes it easier for one person to manage more parts of a process, which is essential for companies relying on fewer workers.

In the chemical industry, processors face the ongoing challenge of effectively mixing solids and liquids to blend slurries while minimizing labor (among other factors such as floor space, dusting, and energy usage). This traditionally entailed multiple workers and labor-intensive operations. Examples include workers climbing ladders and opening equipment doors with ingredients/materials in hand; controlling mixer agitators; and incurring risk in potentially caustic or hazardous environments. Today, solutions are available such as sealed conveyors

(e.g., pneumatic, tubular, helix) and automated bag-handling and processing equipment; valves on bag-handling equipment, and self-contained batching/blending equipment offer enhanced worker safety, labor savings, and high throughput. (Learn more by reading Pre-Mix Solutions and Slurries – Effectively, Economically, and Safely.)

Additional technologies offer greater cost-effectiveness and labor savings than ever, including labor-saving automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) and autonomous mobile robots (AMR) that shuttle materials across warehouses and production areas. (Learn more by reading: Using Material Handling Automation to Improve Efficiency.)

Efficiency: It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon

There’s no single solution for any given material handling, batching, or blending application. Significant efficiency improvements require varying degrees of customization to meet your material, processing, and business goals. Asking the right questions of your internal team and your external partners can take you closer and closer to your project’s finish line — and beyond, because the race toward greater efficiency and competitiveness is an ongoing journey.

When it comes to selecting a partner to provide equipment, systems, and engineering services, it’s most important that they have the breadth of expertise and deep knowledge of your needs, This, in turn, can go beyond solving problems to open new opportunities and benefits spanning design, reliability, serviceability, and much more.

About Hapman

We are a global manufacturer of standard and custom bulk material handling equipment and complete material handling systems, with locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. Our process has been proven across 12,000 applications across all major bulk material processing industries in every US state and 56 countries worldwide.

Whether your equipment needs are standard and straightforward or elaborate and controlled, Hapman’s team of applications experts will assist you with any level of support.

Our company culture is driven by new ideas, fresh thinking, and continuous improvement. That’s why Ideas that Move is more than a slogan. It’s an integral part of who we are. We seek to acquire and share new knowledge, build on our experience, collaborate with you and other industry experts, and push perceived process limitations — all while fully embracing disciplined engineering and quality material handling practices.

At Hapman, we are more than a material handling systems provider. We are your business partner. We are dedicated to achieving your highest level of trust and satisfaction and earning your confidence in our commitment and expertise.

Take the next step towards innovation and excellence. Contact our experts at (800) 427-6260 or sales@hapman.com for a personalized consultation.

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The Helix® Flexible Screw Conveyor is designed to handle a wide variety of materials, from powders and granules to flakes, crystals, and pellets. Its versatility has made it a staple in industries ranging from food and chemical processing to wastewater and pharmaceuticals. Whether transporting materials for bulk processing, batching, or blending, the Helix® offers a practical solution that can be tailored to your operation’s specific needs. This adaptability is why the Helix® remains one of the most trusted options for material handling nearly half a century after its introduction.

Flexibility in Design

One of the Helix®’s standout features is its flexible design, which allows it to easily fit into various facility layouts, even in areas with limited space. The conveyor can transport materials horizontally up to 80 feet or achieve vertical discharge heights of up to 40 feet, providing a unique advantage over more rigid systems that may struggle with space constraints. This flexibility ensures that the Helix® can adapt to existing production lines without requiring significant modifications.

Available in sizes ranging from 2.5 inches to 8 inches in diameter, the Helix® offers a wide capacity range—between 15 and 1,800 cubic feet per hour. This scalability means businesses, whether small-batch operations or high-volume production facilities, can find a Helix® model that suits their needs. With its extensive capacity range, the conveyor is suitable for handling everything from lightweight powders to denser, heavier materials.

Every material presents unique handling challenges, and Hapman understands that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in material handling. The Helix® is equipped with multiple auger options that can be customized based on material characteristics. For example, sticky materials, fine powders, and heavy, abrasive substances all require different handling approaches, and the Helix® offers auger types specifically designed to optimize performance for each.

This attention to customization extends to other parts of the conveyor as well. The Helix® offers various hopper designs, allowing businesses to tailor their material feeding solution to their exact needs. Additionally, the option to add a center core is beneficial for operations handling dense or aerated materials, as it helps to mitigate common conveying challenges such as blockages or inconsistent flow.

These customizable features make the Helix® an adaptable and flexible option across industries including food processing, chemical, pharmaceutical, and wastewater. By offering a wide array of auger types and hopper configurations, Hapman ensures that customers can find the right setup for their specific materials and processes.

Designed with Efficiency in Mind

Operational efficiency is another core advantage of the Helix® Flexible Screw Conveyor. Maintenance is often a significant source of downtime in industrial operations, but the Helix® helps minimize that with its tool-free casing removal feature. This allows operators to quickly and easily access the system for maintenance or cleaning, reducing the time spent on upkeep and keeping production lines running smoothly.

The Helix® also prioritizes worker safety. With its Hi/Lo functionality, operators can safely control the conveyor from ground level, eliminating the need for ladders or lifts, and significantly reducing the risk of workplace accidents. Additionally, the portable base allows the conveyor to be easily moved between different processes, adding a level of operational flexibility that is particularly valuable in dynamic manufacturing environments.

For businesses that require precise material dosing, the Helix® offers advanced capabilities with its Loss-in-Weight Batching option. This feature integrates seamlessly with automated systems, providing programmable batch controls and built-in load cells to ensure accurate material dosing. Whether you’re handling delicate pharmaceutical ingredients or more robust materials like grains and powders in food processing, the precision provided by the Loss-in-Weight Batching system ensures that your operations remain efficient and reliable.

This precision makes the Helix® an ideal solution for industries such as pharmaceuticals, where contamination-free handling and exact dosing are critical. Stainless steel construction ensures compliance with sanitary requirements, while the ability to integrate with automated systems makes it a highly effective tool for precise material control in these settings.

A Commitment to Reliable Material Handling

Hapman’s Helix® Flexible Screw Conveyor remains a highly reliable, customizable, and efficient solution for material handling. By offering customizable options to meet the specific needs of various industries, Hapman continues to enhance productivity and streamline processes for its customers. Whether you’re transporting lightweight powders or heavy, dense materials, the Helix® provides a proven, time-tested solution that will keep your operations moving smoothly.

With quick-ship availability for select models, businesses can implement this proven solution quickly and effectively, minimizing lead times and avoiding unnecessary production delays.

For more information on how Hapman’s Helix® can enhance your material handling processes, visit Hapman’s Helix® product page.

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One of the nation’s largest snack food producers needed a conveying solution that could be quickly cleaned between batches and easily moved between production areas. Frequent product changeovers required full wash-down capability, while the existing process forced employees to clean conveyors from ladders — a time-consuming and unsafe method.

Solution

Hapman provided a Hi/Lo Helix Flexible Screw Conveyor designed to meet both mobility and sanitation needs. The unit’s mobile base and pivoting design allow operators to raise or lower the conveyor for cleaning, inspection, or auger changeovers — all from ground level.
With an electric actuator for smooth height adjustment, the conveyor can be safely and efficiently maneuvered throughout the plant — even through standard doorways — without disassembly. This design eliminated the need for ladders and improved worker safety during routine maintenance.

Result

The snack manufacturer now performs complete cleanouts in five minutes or less using one maintenance person, without special tools or equipment. The Hi/Lo Helix’s portability and fast changeover capability helped the team meet strict food safety requirements while reducing downtime and improving overall production efficiency.

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Common Flexible Screw Conveyor Mistakes

1. Mismatch Between Material and Design

Flexible screw conveyors can move many different types of materials. But if those materials affect conveying equipment in a way that wasn’t accounted for when the equipment was being built, there can be problems down the road.

For example, some bulk materials create friction, which can have a negative effect on the material itself and also cause the conveyor’s motor to be overburdened. This can create excessive wear and eventually lead to failure if left unchecked. In other cases, certain materials can build up on the screw and cause it to stall, effectively interrupting production.

2. Selecting the Wrong Auger Type

The screw or auger is the only part of a flexible screw conveyor that moves. That doesn’t mean only one type of screw will get the job done in every application. To get the best results possible from a flexible screw conveyor, it’s important to select the auger type that best suits the material you need to convey.

► Flat Wire Augers

Flat wire augers are used for conveying powders or other light materials because the flat conveying surface applies a more positive forward directional force on the product being conveyed and reduces the outward force against the tube wall.

► Beveled or Square Bar Augers

Beveled or square bar augers are specifically designed to convey difficult-to-handle or fragile material with minimal product degradation or damage.

► Round Wire Augers

Round wire augers are made from a coiled round bar and are mainly used for heavy or highly abrasive materials. The biggest asset of this auger design is its strength and flexibility, which minimizes the load imposed on it by material weight, particle shape or material size.

3. Ignoring Operational Requirements

Many applications require their flexible screw conveyors to perform intermittent or continuous operation. In both instances, special considerations must be made to ensure optimal equipment performance.

When conveyors must start and stop in a repetitive fashion under full load, some heavy materials may cause startup issues. To mitigate this problem, modifications can be made to the conveyor that will add to its structural strength and/or reduce the amount of material during startup. Flexible screw conveyors that perform non-stop for extended intervals need to be specifically designed for this type of operation and should be sized to run at an average speed range.

The Hapman Approach: Custom Solutions that Perform

Selecting the proper flexible screw conveyor is about more than moving material from point A to point B — it’s about designing a system that enhances your entire process. From matching auger types to specific materials to optimizing for continuous or batch operation, every detail matters.

At Hapman, we don’t deliver one-size-fits-all solutions. Our engineers design flexible screw conveyors that meet the exact demands of your material, environment, and production goals. The result is dependable performance, less downtime, and a system built to handle the long haul. Ready to improve performance and reliability? Contact our experts to discuss a tailored conveying solution.

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Understanding how dust forms, recognizing its potential hazards, and implementing effective control measures are essential steps in maintaining a safe and productive plant environment.

The Real Dangers of Industrial Dusting

Even a small accumulation of dust can present a hazard in processing environments. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may cite facilities for combustible dust hazards under the General Duty Clause (Section 5(a)(1)), which requires employers to maintain a workplace free from recognized dangers.

While OSHA does not define a specific dust depth limit, it references NFPA guidelines suggesting that dust layers thicker than 1/32 inch (about the thickness of a paper clip) covering more than 5% of a room’s surface area can pose a significant explosion risk. This includes dust on beams, joists, ducts, and equipment surfaces.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently consolidated several combustible dust standards into NFPA 660: Standard for Combustible Dusts (2024). This unified standard replaces NFPA 654 and provides updated guidance for preventing fires and explosions related to combustible particulate solids. It also emphasizes reducing secondary dust explosions, which are often responsible for the most severe damage and injuries.

In addition to explosion risks, uncontrolled dust can:

• Create slip-and-fall hazards on coated surfaces.
• Impair visibility in work areas.
• Increase respiratory health risks for employees.

The message is clear: effective dust control is critical to ensuring safety, compliance, and reliable operations.

How Hapman Helps You Control Dust at the Source

The most effective way to minimize dust is to control it where it originates. Hapman offers a range of engineered dust mitigation solutions designed to capture and contain material before it becomes airborne.

Conveyors

Hapman’s Tubular Drag, Flexible Screw, and Vacuum conveyors feature sealed designs that confine materials throughout transport. When paired with dust hoods or collection systems at inlet and discharge points, these conveyors significantly reduce airborne dust and improve overall plant cleanliness.

Central Dust Collection Systems

Central dust collection systems are highly effective for large-scale processes, capturing and removing dust from the plant environment. However, they are typically best suited for extensive operations since they remove material from the process stream and can be more costly for smaller applications.

Point-of-Use Dust Collectors

Point-of-use dust collectors capture particulates directly at the source—where dust is most likely to form. Common applications include:

• Bag dumping stations for 20–50 lb. ingredient bags.
• Bulk bag unloaders handling 2,000-lb. bags.

These systems use cartridge filters and timed pulse-cleaning valves to return captured material to the process. By keeping dust localized and contained, they help maintain cleaner air, safer work conditions, and greater material efficiency.

A Smarter Approach to Safety and Profitability

Effective dust control is about more than compliance—it’s about creating a safer, more efficient operation. With Hapman’s engineered solutions, processors can reduce airborne dust, protect employees, and maintain consistent productivity across every shift.

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