Winning a contract is always cause for celebration. Using the opportunity to transform how you deliver your service is an added bonus. That’s exactly what happened when a West Australian transport company won a supply chain management contract for a global drinks manufacturer.
The contract called for an economical, clean, quiet conveyor for the rapid decanting of 1,000 kg bulk bags of sugar into road tankers. In addition, they wanted to run with minimal operator intervention. The company knew it was time to replace their pneumatic system with something more agile and efficient.
The bulk sugar application would run intermittently, making a mobile system highly desirable. The ability to store the conveyor when not in use would free warehouse space for other operations.
Floveyor F5 is a perfect fit for bulk sugar handling
The Floveyor F5 proved to be the perfect choice for the food and beverage application. Several features made it a better choice than pneumatic conveying traditionally used by the transport company. These include:
- Light, modular design
- 5 kw motor
- High throughputs at a range of angles.
In consultation with the customer, Floveyor built and tested the F5 conveyor at our research facility. Additional features were included with the AMC conveyor, including:
- integrated tanker loading attachment
- built-in venting
- mobile skid.
The new system operates cleanly, so tanker clean downs were eliminated after loading. This allowed for very fast turnaround times.
Process line technology maintains flow of hygroscopic materials
The next challenge was directly related to the difficulty presented when conveying sugar. Atmospheric and temperature changes in transit activated the sugar’s ability to form lumps of various sizes. Floveyor addressed this problem in two ways:
- The Floveyor F5 uses an integrated safety grid to stop or break lumps.
- Floveyor bulk material handling equipment was used to manage some of the smaller lumps blocking the road tankers ‘on board’ blowing systems. A lump breaker was retrofitted to condition the sugar prior to filling the road tankers. This eliminated problems for the customer at both ends of the loading and unloading process.
Scaling bulk sugar handling with Floveyor tanker loader technology
A quality systems review by the transport company identified the potential to shift their sugar handling operation from 1,000 kg bulk bags to 25 tonne sea containers. This would provide economies of scale but only if the transfer would be fast enough to avoid incurring demurrage costs from the sea container company.
Fitting the Floveyor with an easily removed adaptor inlet feeding into the lump breaker gave the transport company the flexibility they needed. They could move lump-free sugar at high speeds between bulk bags or sea containers and road tankers.
Find out if a Floveyor is right for you
If you have difficult materials to convey, or have a demanding schedule to maintain, use the Materials Matcher to discover the best Floveyor for the job. You can request an online quote and get started on transforming your own bulk material handling operation.