Hygienic Design Loss-In-Weight Vibratory Feeder Ideal for Food Applications

Food manufacturing applications require the accurate addition of a wide range of raw materials into production streams. Most of the time loss-in-weight screw feeders are used for this purpose. However, many applications increasingly require the addition of inclusions, such as raisins or nuts to a cereal line, chocolate chips to a granola bar line before baking or even dehydrated meat and vegetables into snack food, just to name a few. These ingredients are often delicate and require a gentler handling method than what a screw feeder can provide. Coperion K-Tron K3 vibratory feeders are perfectly designed to add the exact proportion of such inclusions to the final product. 

Vibratory feeders are ideal for the gentle handling of a wide variety of materials, including friable products, abrasive products, products with non-uniform shapes, and some fibers. They are optimally suited to applications such as the high accuracy feeding of a wide variety of bulk materials, and friable ingredients in particular. The gentle vibratory feeding principle allows for high accuracy feeding without causing damage to the bulk material.

Many of these specialty inclusions are also high in ingredient cost. For this reason, it is imperative that the method of delivery to the process below be extremely accurate and controlled, to avoid overfeeding while maintaining control of these added costs. The use of K3 loss-in-weight vibratory feeders for the accurate addition of inclusions to the process ensures a consistent flow of these high value ingredients, and more importantly, a higher control of ingredient costs.

The innovative new K3 vibratory feeder features a unique, patent-pending drive system combined with an advanced control package. It is able to achieve accuracies averaging 35% better over traditional technologies. Coperion K-Tron’s patented load cells and KCM controller ensure high accuracy feeding while the easy clean design of the vibratory tray provides the required hygiene and facilitates quick and easy product changeover.

The key to achieving such high accuracy is the ability to deliver a continuous, even mass flow with minimal pulsations. The K3 vibratory drive can do this thanks to a completely new shock absorber design. Conventional vibratory feeders use rubber or spring shock absorbers, which allow movement of the drive in all directions, resulting in rotational motion. In contrast to these conventional shock absorbers, the K3 line uses a unique flexible pendulum technology that provides shock absorption only parallel to the desired direction of motion, eliminating rotational movement. This parallel motion ensures an even material flow of the product along the entire length of the tray.

The advanced control system and feeder electronics include internal sensors that measure acceleration, displacement, load, current and temperature at rates of up to 25,000 times per second. The fast-acting controller then adjusts the vibratory drive signal to maintain clean sinusoidal displacement for optimal mass flow. The combination of this unique drive with the Coperion K-Tron SmartConnex control system also results in extremely low energy consumption as compared to other feeding technologies. Power consumption can be as low as 20 Watts for feed rates as high as 6,000 kg/h, thus making it ideal for improved production sustainability and minimal heat dissipation.

The typical feeder package consists of a hopper, feed tray and vibratory drive mounted on a weighing system featuring patented, high accuracy Smart Force Transducer weighing technology and combined with SmartConnex controls. The mechanical package is modular in design, and versatile so it can accommodate custom tray configurations and lengths. A special quick-release clamp mechanism on the feeder tray allows for quick product changeover. The absence of mechanical wear parts results in lower maintenance requirements and ensures gentle handling of the bulk material. All parts in contact with the bulk material are made of stainless steel or food grade materials. The ‘Hygienic Design’ execution includes a hygienic silicone cover to enclose the complete drive assembly, making it easy to clean and suitable for food applications.

Feed rates for the new vibratory feeders range from as low as 1 dm³/h (0.035 ft³/h) up to 8500 dm³/h (300 ft³/h). This revolutionary new generation of Coperion K-Tron loss-in-weight vibratory feeders offers gentle handling of the bulk material, higher accuracy and faster product changeover, resulting in less product waste, less downtime and better end product quality. The HD line of vibratory loss-in-weight feeders is ideal for gentle feeding of ingredients in food applications.