A circular separator and flexible screw conveyor help package powdered milk at a high rate
Transylvania Vocational Services, Inc. (TVS), a non-profit community rehabilitation program that provides employment and employment services to adults with disabilities, needed to unload 55-lb bags of dry powdered milk, convey it, and package it in 2-lb.bags at a rate of 90 lbs/minute. "We need[ed] high throughput to satisfy our contract requirement of packaging 16 million pounds per year," recalls food operations manager Charles Merrill.
The solution consisted of a 48-in.-square bag dump station through which two workers unload powder that falls into a 48-in.-diameter vibratory separator from Kason Corporation. The separator scalps paper pieces from cut bags containing the powdered milk product, which falls from the screener's discharge outlet into a 25-cu.-ft.-capacity Flexicon floor-mounted hopper. A 15-ft.-long Flexicon flexible screw conveyor at a 45-degree incline transports the powder through an interior plant wall to a filler and vertical form-fill-seal packaging machine in the adjacent room.