New Valve Bids to Increase Wave Conveying Capacity

Conair says the common-line valve—called an “automatic flush valve”—eliminates valve-sealing problems that can occur with some material types or applications. The new design can potentially increase the overall capacity of its patented Wave Conveying system by ensuring a firm vacuum seal is created. Conair says the valve has been found to help reduce fill times significantly—by as much as 70% in one case—effectively increasing the overall capacity of the Wave Conveying system. Common line valves allow multiple receivers to get material via the same main conveying line, instead of dedicated lines from each source to each receiver.

At NPE2015, Conair introduced its R-PRO (resin-protection) conveying system, which offered slow-speed, dense-phase material conveying that sought to eliminate issues like angel hair and pellet fracturing. After its launch, however, Conair refined the concept, which is now called Wave Conveying. Beyond simply low-speed conveying, Wave Conveying lets processors move different materials at the different speeds, finding the ideal velocity for each application.

The Wave Conveying system uses Conair LDP Series vacuum pumps equipped with variable frequency drives. Unlike typical vacuum pumps that are 100% on or off, LDP pumps with variable-speed drives find and maintain the capacity and power consumption needed to hold a specific velocity.