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.

The post Hapman Showcases Bulk Material Solutions at PACK EXPO 2025 appeared first on Hapman.

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.

The post Efficiency in Batching & Blending: 4 Common Challenges and How to Fix Them appeared first on Hapman.

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.

The post Dust Control in Bulk Material Handling appeared first on Hapman.

For this application, the customer did not have the ceiling height that was needed to unload the bulk bag directly into ta filler in a vertical common frame, so Hapman quoted the option of a Bulk Bag Unloader into a Hi/Lo Helix® and finish with a Bulk Bag Filler. Loading the Bulk Bag Unloader is easy with the integral hoist. The operator can safely prep the bag for discharge using the custom untie box. An automated pinch valve provides control of flow from the bulk bag for operator safety and improved operations flexibility. The unloader discharges into a hopper with integral dust collection and flow aid components to ensure consistent feed of the Helix flexible screw conveyor that supplies the Hapman Bulk Bag Filler. This Bulk Bag filler uses hanging load cells for gain-in-weight control of the Helix to ensure accurate bag filling. Standard feature provide rapid empty bag inflation and secure spout retention for quick filling with minimal dusting. The entire system is safety interlocked and managed as a complete controlled packaged.Once the bag has reached the target weight, the operator would raise the pallet to the filled bag, deflate the bladder to release the fill spout, and unhook the straps to remove the filled bag. The process would be repeated.

Hapman’s Bulk Bag Unloader frame was fabricated in stainless steel with standard 3” square, tubing and a 4,000 pound bag capacity. It includes fixed height frame, pre-drilled mounting pads, and a load tested and certified hoist style bag adapter. An electric hoist and trolly were designed to give the operator the ability to lift and support the bulk bag while unloading the powdered sugar. A bag agitator assembly was included to keep material flowing from the bulk bag even when nearly empty. The pneumatically actuated pinch valve mentioned above is capable of close through a static column of material, which enables retying and removing partially used bags not possible with a basic iris valve. The pinch valve has specifically designed opposing plates that close around the discharge spout to provide a more positive closure than conventional iris valves.

A series #500 Helix® conveyor with controls was fabricated with a 15 foot long stainless steel bevel wire auger, 5” diameter U.H.M.W. polyethylene food grade conveyor casing, quick release T-handle stainless compression couplings, and stainless steel drive/discharge assembly. The Helix included an 8 cubic foot volume surge capacity, stainless steel, receiving hopper with 45° pick up, and quick-release end clean out cap. An integral ribbon style agitator within the hopper ensures mass flow of powdered sugar into the auger without bridging. All components were assembled onto a common Hapman’s Hi/Lo Portable base assembly that allows easy maneuvering and lowering the conveyor for the fastest possible cleaning and changeovers..

Lastly, a bulk bag filler was supplied with fully welded stainless-steel square tube framing with fork-lift pockets for portability of the entire piece of equipment. This Filler design is made to fill directly onto a pallet that can be removed with a fork truck. The powered frame adjustment includes a motorized lift assembly to accommodate different bag sizes and ease of hanging new bags. The filler includes basic “up-down” pushbutton controls with a stop switch, stainless steel quick release bag hooks, and a venturi empty bag inflation system. The fill head utalizes a 304 stainless steel product fill tube with inflatable rubber bladder with self-contained pressure control and a product fill tube, fabricated of #304 stainless steel. Finally, four (4) frame mounted load cells and Hardy based controls were included for precise filling of bags.

A future project will see the loaded bags moving to the production area which will also feature Hapman equipment.

The post Unload, Convey, Fill, Repeat appeared first on Hapman.

CHALLENGE

EPA standards required this company to feed Enviroblend® into their dust collection system at a precisely controlled rate of 30 pounds per hour so the emissions would be at an acceptable level. They also required a digital verification that the material was accurately discharging

SOLUTION

Hapman used a bulk bag unloader with bag agitation to discharge the material into a feeder. The feeder meter-fed the Enviroblend into an eductor. A 4 HP Roton blower then conveyed the material into the bag house. The use of load cells and an IQ Plus® 510 Batch Indicator verified that the feeder was constantly discharging the material. The digital readout provided up to the second information and a low level sensor in the feeder would alarm them when the bag was empty.

RESULT

This system provided the customer with a very accurate automated system. The only manpower required was the replacement of the bulk bag every 2½ days.

The post Hapman Maintains EPA Standards by Meter Feeding Enviroblend into a Dust Collection System appeared first on Hapman.

Download PDF A4

CHALLENGE

A processor must expand its capacity and add new lines in half the time normally required for such a project. The material being conveyed is a very fine powder and can be problematic.

CUSTOMER

Basic American Foods

INDUSTRY

Prepared Foods Processor

BUSINESS BENEFITS REALIZED

Product moves efficiently and effectively with custom-engineered solution for pneumatic conveying.

A test drive of the material through the conveyor before purchase confirmed that it would be a successful installation.

Known as the pioneer that perfected potato dehydration, Basic American Foods is the foodservice source for unique, convenient potato and bean products. From the restaurant operator to the household consumer, Basic American Foods provides a variety of innovative products.

In the mid-50s, Basic American Foods established a potato processing plant in Blackfoot, Idaho, where the first instant potato product that could be rehydrated with boiling water was developed. With 40 patents to its credit, Basic American Foods now operates additional plants in Idaho and in other prime potato growing areas like Wisconsin and Washington.

INSTANT CHANGES IN OPERATIONAL CAPACITY NEEDED

In 2009, a new line was added to the Blackfoot plant which required a major reconfiguration of existing space. The project timeline was half of what would normally be expected of such a complex project.

“The reconfiguration project would normally take about a year and a half from conception to completion because of the complexity of adding a new process within an existing plant,” said Jeff Andrews, senior project engineer with Basic American Foods. “Our timeline required that we do it all in eight months.”

The reconfiguration project affected one process that utilized a previously purchased Hapman bulk bag unloader to supply corn starch to two, new pneumatic conveyors. The conveyors would move the bulk powder about 150 ft (45.7 m) 8 hours a day, 5 days per week.

RELIABLE PARTNER NEEDED

Because of the seemingly impossible timeline, Andrews knew he couldn’t risk working with vendors he couldn’t count on.

“I’ve used Hapman’s products over the past twelve years, both as an engineering consultant and in my current role,” noted Andrews. “We have about a dozen of Hapman’s MiniVac conveyors at this plant that work like a charm. Hapman may not always be the cheapest, but they will be there to help engineer and stand behind their product. As an engineer, this is the type of company I like to work with.”

TEST DRIVE OF MATERIAL ENSURES RIGHT DECISION

Because of its very small particle size and tendency to pack under pressure, corn starch can be problematic when conveying. As the project lead, Andrews wanted peace of mind knowing his decisions were going to be as successful in the real world as they were on paper.

“Hapman’s test laboratory made it easy to ensure things would work,” said Andrews. “It’s a good feeling to know that when you throw the switch everything is going to work as it should.”

CUSTOM-ENGINEERED SOLUTION FOR OPTIMAL FILTER OPERATION

Even though the material test proved Hapman’s MiniVac pneumatic conveyors would successfully convey the material, Hapman’s engineers were concerned with the conveyors’ filters plugging with the fine corn starch particles. To combat this from happening, they engineered a custom solution.

“We were able to engineer timing circuits and pulse cleaning cycles specific to Basic American Food’s process and material,” said Floyd Phalen, Hapman engineering manager. “Our controls engineer customized a unique cycle specific to the configuration that ensured the best efficiency of material movement.”

ENGINEERING PARTNERSHIP ENSURES PROJECT SUCCESS

Once the plant reconfiguration project was complete, Andrews was glad he chose Hapman for his pneumatic conveyor needs.

“As I’ve said, this was a very large project. Over the years I’ve worked with hundreds of equipment vendors on all types of equipment, and I would rank Hapman in the top five of the easiest to work with,” Andrews said. “During these big projects, with so much going on, it is easy to let an order fall through the cracks. I had several vendors that would request information, and if it slipped on our side they used it as an excuse to charge more or say they can’t make the delivery schedule. Hapman did not do this. In fact, they did the opposite.

“They were great with friendly reminders helping us push the process along. I really appreciated that and it took stress off me. That’s one of the reasons I use Hapman for my bulk material handling needs.”

The post Basic American Foods Expands Plant Capacity in Record Time, Ensures Reliability with MiniVac Pneumatic Conveyors appeared first on Hapman.

An Italian food processor added a new pasta line to meet growing demand for small batch, premium pasta. The granulated salt used for this process came in 2,000 lb bags, had a fine particle size and was hygroscopic in nature. The combination of these characteristics, coupled with the transportation time, left the processor with material that had formed large dense clumps inside the bag. The clumps of salt caused flow issues from the FIBC’s and created challenges for properly dissolving the salt in water to obtain the correct percentage of salinity. The Italian food processor reached out to Hapman to help with their material flow challenge.

INDUSTRY

Food

THE MOISTURE ABSORBING NATURE OF SALT – ITALIAN FOOD PROCESSOR EXPAND LINE

Purchasing in bulk bags or FIBC’s is a cost effective way for most process manufacturers to buy dry bulk materials. The cost of the material per pound is typically less when buying in bulk, storage of raw material requires less floor space, and the handling of bulk bags is more efficient by using fork lifts and bag unloading stations as opposed to operators manually dumping smaller bags into dump stations or hoppers. Some materials can cause unexpected challenges when purchasing in bulk however. The molecular construction of the dry material and its ability to attract moisture from the air and become compacted can create issues for processors. Salt is a compound mineral that can be hygroscopic in some forms resulting in caking and clumping. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt)

An Italian food processor added a new pasta line to meet growing demand for small batch, premium pasta. The process required salinated water for cooking the pasta prior to packaging. The granulated salt used for this process came in 2,000 lb bags, had a fine particle size and was hygroscopic in nature. The combination of these characteristics, coupled with the transportation time, left the processor with material that had formed large dense clumps inside the bag. The clumps of salt caused flow issues from the FIBC’s and created challenges for properly dissolving the salt in water to obtain the correct percentage of salinity. The Italian food processor reached out to Hapman to help with their material flow challenge.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

Craig Thomas, Hapman Product Manager, worked with other clients over the years to overcome flow challenges from bulk bags due to clumping. Under most circumstances, offering a bulk bag unloader with air-operated bag massaging paddles would be the ideal answer to provide free flowing material when clumping inside the bag occurred. Unfortunately the salt lumps in this process were particularly hard and the fine particle of the granules made breaking up the clumps by simply massaging the bags nearly impossible. For this application, Mr. Thomas worked with the processor and the Hapman equipment engineering team to develop a unique series of breaker bars that could effectively and automatically break up the hard clumps of salt in the bag (see Figure 1 to right). The breaker bars were designed in parallel and at different heights. The bars, which were stainless steel formed triangular structures, had a engineered gap between them to assist in fracturing the large agglomerations. The breaker bars were mounted on the pneumatic agitator panels. When the panels were activated, the breaker bars were forced into the bag from both sides crushing any clumps in between. The paddles move out and in, each time breaking more clumps and allowing the free flowing material to leave the bag.

CONVEYING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

The Italian Food Processor expressed to Craig that in addition to breaking up the salt, the material needed to reach a mezzanine that was 12’ above ground level. Hapman supplied the processor with an integral hopper and Helix^® Flexible Screw Conveyor (see Figure 2 to left). This complete equipment package unloaded the FIBC, collected the material in an integral hopper on the discharge of the bag, then automatically conveyed the salt up to the mezzanine where it was emptied into a reactor of boiling water to cook the pasta. The Helix was supplied with 304 stainless steel construction and a round wire auger. The bulk density of the material at 77 lbs/CF required the pull through of the round wire and eliminated concern of overload. The 2HP TEFC motor allowed for efficient batching operation and safe wash down. The right angle discharge allowed the conveyor to effectively release material under the low ceiling height. The Helix was engineered with a bolted cover and quick-release clean-out cap. The assembly mated to the bulk bag unloading access chamber to provide a sealed system and no loss of product.

ENGINEERED EQUIPMENT – PROCESS OPTIMIZATION

The food processor installed the Bulk Bag Unloader with breaker bars and integral Helix Flexible Screw Conveyor on the new premium pasta line. The unloader was one of the key components to making the new line a success. The Italian food processor realized cost and time savings by making the investment in the equipment. Without the ability to reliably and consistently break up the large, hard salt clumps the percentage of salinated water could not be maintained at a consistent rate, causing quality concerns. In addition, the processor would have faced significant salt loss due to the inability to effectively empty the bags. The collaboration with Hapman helped this processor successfully launch the new, high-quality product consumers expected.

The post Overcoming the Challenges of Handling Salt in Bulk – The Moisture Absorbing Nature of Salt appeared first on Hapman.

CHALLENGE

Werner G. Smith, Inc. was awarded a long-term contract from a new customer which required the blending of a granular powder with an aqueous chemical solution. Under the terms of the agreement, the customer would provide the raw materials and WGS would make the product in accordance with the specifications set forth in the agreement. The job began at a time when WGS had extra capacity in one of its large reactors allowing the reactor to be dedicated for this process. Dedicating the unused processing space was an excellent way for WGS to maintain on-time deliveries while still accepting new work from other customers. The building where the product was intially made had no loading dock, which meant 55 lb bags of raw material had to be hauled and processed manually.

Werner G. Smith is a chemical manufacturer which specializes in plant and marine-based oils, esters, and waxes used in additives in a wide-range of industries from wire drawing, and metal working lubricants, to glazes, putties and cosmetics. Examples of customer products are modeling clay for car designs as they are scaled for production, and for home products. The unique and sometimes complex nature of the additives manufactured by Werner G Smith has been the key to the company’s 85 year-long success. The company’s Facebook® page describes the business in this way:

“Our products can be found in the putties at your local home improvement store, in the cosmetics found on your shelf and even in the glazing compounds used on the windows of the White House! We use no solvents in our processing and were proud to call ourselves a “green” company long before most chemical companies began looking at how their products and manufacturing processes impacted the environment. We continue to improve our processes and upgrade our facility to meet the demands of a changing economy and global market.” The company focus on continuous improvement is the reason Jennifer Bugbee, Vice President of Operations at Werner G. Smith, sought a better alternative to a cumbersome, costly, and time consuming process coupled with the goal of complete customer satisfaction.

MANUAL PROCESSING LEFT STRAIN

Werner G. Smith was awarded a long-term contract from a new customer. The job required the blending of a granular powder with an aqueous chemical solution. Under the terms of the agreement, the customer provides the raw materials and Werner G. Smith makes the product in accordance with the specifications set forth by the customer. The job began at a time when Werner had extra capacity in one of its large reactors allowing the reactor to be dedicated for this process. Dedicating the unused processing space was an excellent way for Werner to maintain on-time deliveries while still accepting new work from other customers. The building where the product was initially made had no loading dock, and would require 55 lb bags of raw material to be hauled and processed manually.

Jennifer Bugbee and her production team developed a system for handling the bags of material. The system included the use of a hand jack to load pallets holding 50 bags each into a box truck. The box truck would transport the pallets from the warehouse to the reactor building. At the reactor building five employees formed a human chain, off-loading each of the 55 lb bags from the box truck and reloading them on pallets inside the production building. The pallets where then hoisted up one story where an operator would manually pull an individual bag from the pallet, cut the bag and dump it directly into the reactor. Each batch of product took 16 hours to produce and required 200 bags of material. Werner was producing two batches per shipment at a rate of two shipments per week. This meant in one week the five employees where manually moving over 800 55 lb bags multiple times in the week. Jennifer noted, “This was an enormous waste of time and manpower and with expansion on the mind of our customer we needed to think about streamlining our process, not only to speed up manufacturing and reduce powder hazards, but to reduce the strain on an aging workforce.”

AUTOMATION IMPROVES OPERATIONS AND EMPLOYEE HEALTH

Jennifer needed to find resources to help her design a new material handling system. She understood the manual handling of their bulk material was hurting operations from both a material cost and employee safety stance; however, finding the time to research the best alternatives was daunting given her normal day-to-day work load. Jennifer reached out to a local industrial supplier, Powell Equipment Company. Jeff Powell met with Jennifer at the facility to see the current operating situation first hand. Jeff quickly assessed that the manufacturer he needed to contact for this project was Hapman. Jennifer spoke with Steve Grant, Hapman Vacuum conveyor Product Manager, to explain her operating conditions and her goals for improvement. Steve worked with Jennifer to fully understand the details of the application and the material that needed to be handled. Steve requested information such as material type and required flow rate, temperature, flowability, particle size, moisture content, and material contact surface requirements. Also important information asked was the horizontal and vertical distance required, existing plant layout, and existing controls automation. Compiling all of the details from Jennifer, Steve made a full recommendation to improve the bulk material handling in her facility.

THE COMPLETE SYSTEM PAYS BACK

The foundation of material characteristics and flow dynamics goes into the design of each piece of Hapman equipment. The Hapman knowledge and experience worked to provide Werner G. Smith with new equipment that achieved the company goals of increasing productivity, decreasing operating costs and improving worker safety. Process manufacturers of all types also evaluate capital equipment purchases based on total cost of ownership (Figure 1). These factors vary from one industry to another; however the goal is the same, to make an investment in equipment that adds to the bottom line over the long term.

The system recommend by Hapman consisted of a Lossin- Weight Bulk Bag Unloader with a vacuum conveyor. The equipment worked together, automatically moving material from unload to process. The details of the system included:

Bulk Bag Unloader:

• Hoist and Trolley Bulk Bag Unloader with loss in-weight measurement – Provided for consistent feeding of material to the downstream conveyor.
• Automatic Bag Agitator Assembly – This assembly will keep compacted material flowing smoothly and evenly and includes an air operated control panel and air cylinder operated bag agitator paddles. Controls provide a simultaneous paddle stroke for optimum bag massaging.
• Bag Spout Access Chamber – Includes the side access door and top inlet opening for bag spout.

The bulk bag unloader fed the Vacuum Conveying system, which included:

• Vacuum Conveying System
• Carbon steel filter/receiver housing – Designed for longevity and ease of use, with slide gate, and quick release side access door for tool-less filter change over.
• Safety Features – Safety interlock switch to shut down system if side access door is opened
• Integral Micron Filter – Filter with a 99.99% efficient rating down to 0.5 micron.
• Reverse air pulse filter cleaning mechanism – Keeps filter clean and system running at optimum operating efficiency.
• Integral regenerative vacuum blower assembly – Complete with exhaust silencer
• Surge Capacity – Eight cubic foot surge hopper provided optimum capacity and minimized operator monitoring.
• Batch Controls – Integral control panel to operate the entire system automatically or manually, fault alerts, and safety shut-off, VFD relays, NEMA 4X rating, load cell readout and diverter control for future expansion.

Each of the Hapman components worked together as a complete system, automating most of the material handling process while improving production time and quality.

PROVEN RESULTS – POSITIVE RETURN

After purchasing and installation of the Hapman bulk material handling system, the returns to Werner G. Smith were almost immediate. The cost savings began with the elimination of the need to have a third party supplier break down larger bags of raw material into the 55 lb bags so Werner employees could manually handle them. The elimination of this step automatically dropped the cost per unit for Werner’s customer. The five employees were assigned duties directly related to production rather than wasting time manually unloading pallets of 55 lb. bags. This change improved production time by several hours. In addition Werner improved overall housekeeping within the facility because bags of material were emptied in an enclosed system and the new process eliminated 80% of the bag waste they had been generating.

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Harry Harman, P.E. of Baxter & Woodman, consulting Engineers, received a call from an official with the Village of Gilberts in the State of Illinois. The call was a request for a review of documents from the EPA to the Village regarding the 5 year renewal of the Village’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit. The Permit, is a set of standards developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the management of wastewater contaminant concentrations allowed to be discharged into streams and rivers by industry and public wastewater treatment facilities by cities, villages, and townships. Upon review of the report, Harry immediately noticed a more stringent limit on the permissible levels of Barium. There were no treatment systems available which would remove the Barium without exceeding the recently enacted Radium limits established by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency – Division of Nuclear Safety.

CUSTOMER

The Village of Gilberts

INDUSTRY

Wastewater Treatment

The Village of Gilberts, IL Achieves Wastewater Requirements with the Help of Baxter Woodman’s Innovative Pre-Treatment System Design

The Village of Gilberts has been a long-time client of Baxter & Woodman’s. The consulting engineering firm specializes in water, wastewater, and other municipal and civil services had worked closely with Village managers and officials to help maintain safe, compliant, and cost-effective drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment systems. Harry was particularly familiar with the chemical make-up of the water and had earlier devised a method for capturing the contaminated bi-product of water treatment recognizing the potential for more strict limits on water discharge into sanitary sewers as well as streams and rivers. The system, called Harman Barium/Radium Removal Process or HBRP involved diverting wastewater from the Ion Exchange softeners into a batch operation treatment tank. Inside the tank, settling ballast and treatment chemicals are introduced as a catalyst to aid in settling the barium and radium contaminated sludge produced during the pre-treatment process. The ballast increased the weight of the material causing the solids to settle more quickly and efficiently inside the tank. The pre-treatment system operates in a batch type mode to coincide with the batch regeneration of the ion exchange softeners. Following the treatment cycle, the settled solids are sent through a filter for dewatering then to a municipal landfill for disposal.

The patent-pending Barium Removal System would help the Village of Gilberts meet the new discharge requirements. Harry had the system design completed and proven, what he needed was help with finding the best equipment to make his ballast feed system work efficiently. Harry sought the assistance of Maggie Beauchamp, sales engineer with Gull Material Handling Company. Gull Material Handling is known throughout Illinois as the company to rely on for design and sourcing assistance related to process and bulk material handling equipment. When Harry explained the HBRP system design to Maggie and expressed his needs for an effective delivery system for the settling ballast, Maggie knew she would recommend a custom Bulk Bag Unloader from Hapman to achieve the needed results. The ballast, a sandlike material, is received in bulk bags, Hapman’s bulk bag unloader allows the 2500 lb bag to be easily hooked on a solid steel frame and positioned with a fork truck securely on the steel base frame. The Bulk Bag Unloader safely holds the bag in place and provides safe, clean dispersion of the ballast sand. The Hapman unloader was custom designed with a portal to access the bag spout for tie-off and an integral transfer hopper.

The hopper allows the ballast to discharge from the bag without flooding the feeder below. The feeder automatically meters the material at a rate of four cubic feet (400 pounds) per hour. The metered ballast enters a pneumatic conveying system that carries the material to the treatment tank.

“The Bulk Bag Unloading System gave me the ability to control the settling process”, notes Harman, P.E. For this application, Harman approved the Hapman Bulk Bag Unloader and feeder system as a key element to the process equipment design. The ability to custom engineer the unloader to fit the exact bag dimensions while also maintaining a footprint that worked inside the Gilbert’s facility were important factors in the equipment selection process. In addition, the accuracy of the integral feeder assembly provided the critical material flow rate. The entire system has proven extremely successful for the Village of Gilberts. The Barium levels in the wastewater came down almost immediately from 6 mg/l to 0.6 mg/l. The low concentration level of the Barium was well within the new EPA guidelines and would allow the Village to discharge the wastewater safely, and without fines, into the Creek receiving the wastewater. In addition, the HBRP system captured the Radium reducing levels in the biosolids from 100 pCi/gram to 13pCi/gram so they could safely be used for fertilizer on local farm fields while the dewatered solids could be safely disposed at the local landfill.

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INDUSTRY

Chemical Industry

CHALLENGE

A perpetual challenge in the chemical industry has been finding an ideal way to effectively mix solids and liquids to create optimal slurry – and at the same time, utilizing the least amount of floor space, energy and human resources.

One of the perpetual challenges in the chemical industry has been finding an ideal way to effectively mix solids and liquids to create optimal slurry – and at the same time, utilizing the least amount of floor space, energy and human resources.

The most common method for combining powders and liquids is to introduce the powder into an agitated tank that has been filled with the liquid component. The typical process for this is to have an operator manually open the tank hatch, lift the bag of powdered product, slit it open, and then dump the dry contents into the tank. The mixture is then blended through the agitation process. The disadvantages of this method are that it produces substantial dusting, creates inefficient liquid-to-solids contact, and is labor intensive.

Dusting creates significant housekeeping issues, and can potentially affect a company’s Certified Good Manufacturing Practices, (CGMP). Another critical element of dusting is that many applications use caustic and/or hazardous chemicals, raising exposure issues. This concern increases when human operators are involved in the handling and dumping of powder bags into the mixing process. In addition to the risk of exposure, is the physical risks of climbing a ladder while carrying bulk bags to a raised platform, or lifting bulk bags of dry product where the weight inside the bag can shift unexpectedly and cause operator injury.

In addition, the process of dumping a large mass of dry product into a liquid can cause an undesirable exothermic reaction. This chemical heat-producing situation has the potential to create inconsistent or poor quality end product. Other possible issues with this standard agitation mixing process include the insufficient wetting of powder, and the potential to create a major process bottleneck when uniform blending requires substantially more time.

THE NEW RESOLUTION

The good news for process design engineers is there are now more effective methods to mixing solutions and slurries. Strategies for an optimal slurry mixing process are best done on an individual basis working collaboratively with a custom design equipment manufacturer who understands the particular challenges of the chemicals being mixed, and how to efficiently address them. Some basic process design concepts are described within this article, with the understanding that many system variables are unique to a plant or to a process. For this reason, a standard equipment purchase may not produce the best results when processing more challenging components.

AN OPTIMIZED APPROACH

The basis of effective dry and liquid mixing includes a wetting cone and eductor working in combination with a powder feeder (see Figure 1). The process begins with a solution that is metered, using a wetting cone to ensure good contact between the powder and the liquid. The eductor uses the flow of liquid through an orifice to create a vacuum through a calculated pressure drop. The vacuum then draws the powder and wetting solution through the eductor. The wetting stream, which is roughly 10% of the total flow before the eductor, is introduced tangentially to produce a vortex effect. The vortex allows the powder and liquid to pre-mix prior to flowing through an eductor (Figure 2).

The amount of turbulence created by the vortex effectively completes the blending process as the mixture passes through the eductor. For applications with powders that are difficult to wet, or where the powder handling can be hazardous, the best practice design uses a self-contained system for adding one or more powders with the mixing solution. This mixing method works exceptionally well in a variety of chemical processing applications. It also solves many of the common mixing challenges in the food, pharmaceutical, water treatment, and oil and gas industries.

A CUSTOMIZABLE APPROACH

From this core mixing design, various configurations can be developed based on specific application requirements. One example is slurry, or a solution system, using multi-powder, loss-and-weight feeders coupled with a hoist-assisted bag unloader and bag dump station. The operator simply loads the bulk powder using a hoist or bag dump station. This system can be designed to deliver slurry in measured batches, or by continuous flow (Figure 3).

Another option uses a helix or tubular drag conveyor to deliver the powder to the feeder, eliminating the need for manual dumping and decreasing human risk (Figure 4). The combination of a weight-and-loss auger style feeder, or volumetric auger style feeder, allows for the accurate mixing of solutions and slurries with, or without, a known concentration. Other engineered configurations are easily conceivable through design collaboration to address specific challenges presented by the chemical properties of the products being processed (Figures 5 and 6).

When designing a new or upgraded slurry mixing system, there are several important design elements to consider. First, the viscosity of the resulting slurry or solution must not exceed the requirements of the eductor. When the viscosity is too high, a standard eductor will fail to create a vacuum, resulting in poor or no mixing. Special eductors can be used in applications where the viscosity exceeds the capacity of the standard version. Process design engineers should be prepared to work closely with equipment design engineers to ensure accurate educator sizing.

The second consideration is taking into account that the maximum allowable back-pressure is 15 psig, which can limit the vertical discharge lift height. The use of a loss-and-weight feeder, or a more cost effective volumetric feed system, permits a controlled and accurate feed for a slurry or solution. This enables virtually instantaneous mixing at any required concentration. To verify the final slurry or solution, use a Coriolis meter to detect the density, total solids, and flow rate.

SIZING EXAMPLE

Assume application requirements of dry material additive at an accuracy of ±2% and a concentration of 7.15% by weight. The dry material is delivered in FIBCs, therefore, a system featuring a combination bulk bag unloader with a feeder, and an eductor with a wetting cone was recommended (Figure 3).

Based on the above specifications, the flexibility of an eductor system proved beneficial for several reasons. An eductor type mixing system can be used on a batch or continuous basis. A continuous process can control the concentration based on outside requirements, such as pH, conductivity, flow, pressure, temperature, and rate of reaction.

A batch system can also be adjusted from one batch to another varying the concentration of the solution or slurry. The bulk bag unloader was included in the system and put on load cells to correctly measure how much material was delivered over time. To help the producer design an optimal system for their application, Hapman first established a materials rate to determine the most efficient size for the feeder and the eductor. The bulk density of the material – diatomaceous earth – was stated as 16 lbs/ ft3. The rate was determined to 22 ft3/hr to successfully achieve a concentration of 7.15%. The following steps were used to determine feeder and eductor size:

1. Determine the feed rate required (22 ft3/ hr) and select the feed rate, (see Table 1 below).
2. Select the maximum discharge pressure required (5 psig). NOTE: Using the standard educator, the maximum pressure drop allowed is 5 psig.
3. If the feed rate is in excess of 24 ft3/ hr, or the maximum discharge pressure is not acceptable, then find the appropriate multiplier and divide that multiplier by the actual rate, (see Table 2 below).
4. Use the multiplier to find the required liquid flow rate.

The data from the producer’s application is shown in tables 1-3. The selected eductor is 1”, to meet a feed rate of 10 gpm, with a not-to-exceed 5 psig back pressure on the discharge of the eductor. Because of the abrasiveness of diatomaceous earth, stainless steel construction was selected for the system.

Next, the auger size of the feeder was determined, based on feed/dosing rate, (see Table 3 below). An appropriate nozzle was then selected to match the screw.

The final step was to determine if the system should be controlled by volume or by weight. Because of the application’s need for accuracy, a weight-based system was selected. Though more expensive and complex than standard volumetric controls, a weight-based system allows for ± 0.5% accuracy. A volumetric control has an accuracy margin of between ± 2% to 5%, and would not have worked with this application’s process specifications.

SUMMARY

This example demonstrates how an eductor-based mixing system can effectively handle a wide range of materials, and how overall process optimization can be achieved. In addition, the eductor mixing system offers increased efficiencies over a conventional system of mixing by allowing solutions and slurries to be made on demand – as opposed to pre-mixed in large holding tanks. Another important benefit is the system limits exposure to operators, and mitigates issues of delivering solid material in a large vapor space.

The design flexibility of an educator based mixing system offers a high level of customized configurations. This allows process design engineers the opportunity to efficiently and effectively meet the demands of a facility’s many different raw material handling needs.

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