Feeding and Blending
Feeding and blending systems are used to meter or dose materials into the primary processing machine. Types include gravimetric blending; volumetric blending; plastics feeding and mixing; plastics dosing.
ESSENTIAL READING
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Five Quick Steps Toward Better Blending
Rising costs of resins and additives, along with higher demands for quality and use of regrind, place a premium on proficient blending. Here are some steps to get you there.
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How to Ensure Reliable Feeder Performance When Handling PCR
Processors are being challenged to incorporate more recycled material into their products. Yet there are both economical and technical obstacles to achieving this objective—feeding among them. The design of your feeding equipment and the advantages that it will offer to your process will be more important than ever.
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10 Things to Know When Specifying Vacuum Conveying Systems for Powders
The priority is to maximize movement of powders while minimizing dust exposure.
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Understanding Low-Rate Feeding for Continuous and Batch Processes
Molders and extruders that need to feed tiny amounts of material to their process require precision in both the material being fed and the equipment doing the dosing. When a shot size consists of three pellets, there is no margin for error.
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Optimize Feeding to Get More Money in Twin-Screw Compounding
Follow these practical examples to improve the feeding efficiency and productivity of your process.
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How to Troubleshoot Your Feeder to Achieve Optimal Performance
Even the tiniest improvements in compounding feeder accuracy can improve profits. Here’s how to keep your feeding system in the pink.
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Latest Feeding & Blending News And Updates
Vortex Global Acquires SolidEx
The Kansas-based supplier of systems for the transport and flow control of dry bulk solids acquired the Louisiana-based maker of high-efficiency railcar-loading products for resins.
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PFA-Coated Ribbon Blender for Sensitive Applications
Targets applications where stainless steel or carbon steel may not be suitable.
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ACS Adds to Southeast Sales Team
Alex Winchester to handle sales for Cumberland and Sterling brands in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi.
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LSR Molding Dosing System Designed for Precision, Efficiency and Compliance
The system offers a variety of features to successfully produce high-quality silicone parts with the most economic use of material, space, working time and energy.
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Twin-Screw Feeder Offers Precise Batching, Weighing
Compact design is said to be ideal when limited space prohibits multiple individual screw units.
Read MoreService Enables One-Day Auxiliary Commissioning
One-day, on-site equipment setup and training assistance program for all types of Conair auxiliaries.
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Featured Posts
Why ‘Smart’ Blending May Be Right for You
Industry 4.0 smart controllers dial in the right recipes quickly with gain-in-weight blenders to eliminate material waste, cost overruns.
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Processors: Gear Up to Handle More Regrind
Plastics auxiliary and primary processing equipment was optimized for running pellets; here’s how you can adjust to the bulk density differences of flake and regrind in drying, conveying, mixing, feeding and processing.
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Smart Works Cells at the Heart of Wittmann’s Exhibit
NPE2024: Under the theme of “It's All Wittmann,” the supplier of injection molding machines, automation and auxiliary equipment is hoping to show NPE attendees what comes with true connectivity.
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Blending Specialists ABS Relaunching Thoreson McCosh Dryer Line
NPE2024: Advanced Blending is taking the wraps off reinvigorated Thoreson McCosh drying line.
Read MorePlastrac Aims to Make Blending More Energy-Efficient with Brushless Motors
NPE2024: Energy-saving motor also results in more streamlined design, consistent with suppliers move to pack more punch in a small footprint.
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Safety, Recycling, and Compounding Trends Bring New Opportunity to 70-Year-Old Company
NPE2024: Vac-U-Max presents pneumatic conveying solutions for powdered materials.
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FAQ: Feeding & Blending
How to get better blending?
1. Blend it up close
2. Say no to static
3. Pay attention to receivers
4. Thwart those bridges
5. Learn to deal with regrind
Compounding feeders that don’t feed accurately typically produce off-spec finished products and require extended periods of downtime to recalibrate or fix, resulting in decreased production rates and lost profits. In all industries, the improvement in accuracy performance by even 0.025% of ingredient feeding can result in significant overall profits.
Proper installation, ideal weighing configurations, and appropriate choice of weighing controls can result in the avoidance of a variety of future feeder problems. For a complex feeder system—such as multiple loss-in-weight (LIW) feeders feeding powder and pellets into mixers or extruders—external influences such as vibration, platform stability, and upstream/downstream equipment connections can all affect a feeder’s performance. Informed knowledge of the significance of these influences is key to optimizing its performance.
How to optimize feeding technology?
It is expected that feeder controls can easily connect to industrial networks and key process data, which has become a critical criterion in evaluating not only feeder performance but also real-time indication of the complete process.
Feeding & Blending Supplier Categories
- Blenders (non-intensive)
- Recycled/Reprocessed Materials - Ground Flake
- Dessicant for Dryers
- Liquid Mixers
- Conveying Equipment (Pneumatic & Mechanical)
- Metal Detectors, Separators
- Silos
- Valves, Gates, Diverters
- Hoppers, Bins, Tanks
- Recycled/Reprocessed Materials - Bale or Bulk
- Box Tilters
- Plastics Size-reduction (Grinding) Services
- Hopper Loaders
- Motionless Mixers
- Metering, Proportioning Equipment
- Intensive Nonfluxing Mixers
- Dryers for Resins
- Bag & Drum Handling
- Semi-bulk Containers
- Feeders
- Intensive Fluxing (melting) Mixers
- Recycled/Reprocessed Materials -Pelletized
- Biodegradable, Photodegradable Resins & Compounds
- Weigh Scales
- Tumblers
- Roll Mills
