Category Archive: News and Information

3 Ways AirSweep Can Help You Be More Environmentally-Friendly

Earth Day is just around the corner, and we want to share how AirSweep is an environmentally-friendly flow aid solution!

One of the biggest challenges of the manufacturing industry is sustainability and how to reduce our carbon footprint. Many companies – including some of AirSweep’s biggest clients – are actually rethinking their process to:

• Lower energy consumption
• Shift to more environmentally-friendly materials
• Reduce or reuse waste material

That’s where AirSweep can help.

Get better flow with less energy. AirSweep uses less plant air and energy than other flow aids, including fluidizers, air cannons, vibrators, and air knockers.

Reduce material waste. A commercial bakery had to throw away 40 pounds of mixture a day because stagnant material would spoil or contaminate the next batch. AirSweep reduced material retention by 90%.

Work with any material. With AirSweep, plants can use any recyclable or renewable materials, even those that have challenging flow properties. For example, it works on plastic regrind, recycled carpet material, and ground oat hulls (a waste material that can be turned into biomass fuel).

Contact us to find out more about how AirSweep can help a company’s efforts to increase productivity and sustainability.

3 Ways to Improve the Efficiency of Material Handling Equipment

Material handling equipment stores, moves, controls or protects material as it goes through different processes in warehouses, plants, and other facilities. These are designed to carry large loads and improve production speed and safety.

Types of Material Handling Equipment

“Material handling equipment” is a broad term, and covers everything from the simplest shelf to complex, fully-automated systems. However, equipment generally falls under four general categories:

• Bulk material handling. Used to store loose powders or solids and transfer these to the next processing stage. Includes silos, hoppers, reclaimers, conveyor belts, stackers, and bucket and grain elevators.
• Engineered systems/automated systems. Removes the need for manual labor to significantly improve productivity, quality control, and plant safety. Includes automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), robotic delivery stems, and conveyor systems.
• Industrial trucks. Used to stack, load, and transport materials. Includes hand trucks (also called dollies), side loaders, pallet trucks, and order pickers.
• Storage and handling. Stores and organizes materials. Includes bins and drawers, mezzanines, racks, and stacking frames.

While bulk material handling systems are made up of reliable machines, there are several problems that can still plague production.

Prevent Spillage with DAZIC

Spillage can stop production, waste materials, and lead to hours of difficult clean-up. It typically occurs at loading points if the upstream conveyor is too fast, or because of a steep incline that causes the material to slump back. Spillage can also occur at discharge points if the flow rate is too fast.

DAZIC zero speed switches can be attached on any material handling equipment that is part of a conveyor system or other shaft-driven process components. The switches stop operations when a machine slows down, stops, or deviates from standard operating parameters.

Barnes Concrete Co., Inc, a ready-mix concrete manufacturer, has used DAZIC to prevent spillage issues. Their feeders load 250 tons of gravel per hour; if any of that equipment failed, it would take three people at least three hours to shovel one ton of gravel. “It would be a nightmare if the DAZIC didn’t shut the conveyor belt down. I don’t even want to think about it,” said the plant supervisor.

Ensure Material Flow with AirSweep

Some materials have poor flow properties and have a tendency to block the discharge. Problems can occur if:

• The material is cohesive enough to form bridges and ratholes
• The material is a fine powder that behaves like liquid when aerated
• The material is prone to sifting segregation
• The material is hygroscopic and can cake or clump in humid plant environments

Flow properties must be considered when selecting the design of the material handling equipment. For example, hopper walls must be steep enough and should not generate too much friction, and the feeder should be able to discharge the material across the entire outlet cross section.

Material tests can determine the flow behaviors by measuring its cohesive strength, internal and wall friction, bulk density, and the gas permeability of fine powders. Ideally, the tests replicate the handling conditions such as temperature and humidity, moisture content, and time at rest.

Some vessels are pre-equipped with fluidizers to activate material. However, these are only effective for fine powders that respond to gentle aeration. It is more cost-effective to use a flow aid like AirSweep, which can activate even wet, sticky, or heavy materials.

AirSweep can be mounted on any vessel with simple tools, and installation can be completed within just a few days. Various companies have found AirSweep to be more effective than fluidizers, air cannons, and industrial vibrators.

Clear Dust and Powders with AcoustiClean

Materials like gypsum, flour, and sawdust are naturally dusty; processing methods, such as rough mechanical handling, can also create dust. This can affect worker safety since many materials can cause respiratory problems or even fatal lung disease after continuous exposure.

In some cases, dust or fine powders can affect the material handling equipment’s efficiency. The dust can affect heat transfer efficiency, and eventually cause it to clog and break down. This was the problem experienced by a US-engineered wood manufacturer, who had issues with soot accumulating in the boiler. Unfortunately, soot blowers warped in the furnace’s intense temperature.

The manufacturer replaced the soot blowers with AcoustiClean sonic horns, which produce high-energy, low-frequency sound vibrations that disperse dry material from material handling equipment. The cast-iron horns can withstand temperatures up to 2000ºF and require very little maintenance.

Customized Solutions for Every Process

Every process and material will have its own challenges. We work with you to understand your needs, and then customize a solution that can improve plant productivity, efficiency, and safety. Contact us to find out more about what AirSweep, Dazic, and AcoustiClean, and how they can be integrated into your process.

Improving Material Flow of Stored Materials in a Warehouse or Production Facility

Some powders and bulk solids can be more difficult to manage after storage or time at rest. The material tends to clump, agglomerate, or cake on the sides of the storage bin or vessel. The problems can be aggravated by plant conditions, and create problems during the production and packaging of the final product.

AirSweep can address some of the common material flow problems in a warehouse or production facility.

Compression

Powders can cake or clump when they are stored or packaged. Compressive forces release the air trapped between particles, and cause the material to settle and become more compact.

This was the problem faced by a regional asphalt manufacturer. “Over the weekend, when the plant was unstaffed, the materials would settle completely. When workers returned on Monday, they had to climb seven meters down into the dark silo, and clear thick layers of compacted material just to get the factory running again,” said Rolando Cavazos, Sales Manager of AirSweep distributor BMH Equipos.

After four years of hammering and trying ineffective flow aids like vibrators, the asphalt manufacturer installed the AirSweep system. The powerful air pulses broke the materials’ cohesive bonds, for instant and reliable flow.

Bridging and Ratholing

Many ingredients used in the food industry have a high oil content. Bridging and ratholing can occur when these are transferred from storage into hoppers and other vessels.

A chocolate manufacturer handles hundreds of pounds of cocoa every day. The fine powder would clog the vessels, and bin activators and fluidizers were ineffective. Every four days, it would pause production so workers could manually scrape off the powder. Aside from causing delays, this led to big spills that coated everyone in chocolate. “It turned you into a giant cocoa puff,” said the coatings manager.

Once the AirSweep system was installed, the plant went from downtime every 3 or 4 days to “no breakdowns, replacements, or any problems whatsoever.” They were even able to add two production shifts per month.

Stagnation

Stagnant material can spoil, decay, or compromise a product formula. This is common in a core flow or channel flow pattern, where powders at the side drop-down at a slower rate than the powder in the center.

AirSweep can help achieve mass flow, so all materials exit the vessel in a first-in/first-out flow pattern. We conducted a material flow test with fish powder, a material that has a tendency to clump and cake in humid environments. To demonstrate AirSweep’s effectiveness, water was even added to the fish powder to show on-demand material flow.

Plugging in the Outlet

When material blocks a vessel outlet, production can slow down or even stop completely. A mineral processing plant had issues with transferring material into supersacks. Despite the steep slopes of vessels, the fine powders and pebbles would still plug the vessel. It took an hour to fill each sack, and workers had to hit the bins with sledgehammers.

The AirSweep system eliminated all plugging of the outlets and cut the filling time of supersacks from one hour to two minutes. An additional forklift driver was even hired to keep up with the increase in production.

AirSweep is used in production and warehouse facilities around the world to improve material flow of even the most problematic materials. Contact us to get a customized proposal for your material and process.

3 Myths Customers Have About Installing AirSweep

AirSweep is designed to make installation as painless as possible. Who said that change always had to be hard?

Myth # 1: It requires special tools or a trained crew

When food manufacturing company Bunge installed AirSweep in their new bulk bag filling station, all they had to do was thread the nozzles into the couplings and connect it to their existing compressed air and electrical system. “Any electrician can wire it up. Everything was pretty straightforward and I would absolutely recommend it.”

Myth # 2: Installation will cause downtime

Even a more complex installation process will save you thousands of hours of downtime. One cement company had tried hammers and electric vibrators, but still spent every Monday clearing compacted material from their silos. “AirSweep solved a four-year-old problem in less than two weeks!”

Myth # 3: It’s a hassle to get a quote

All our customers are very happy with how quickly we respond to queries and work to solve the problem. “From the very beginning, the Control Concepts team has been very responsive. Every quote is accurate, and I never have to ask ‘where is my stuff?’” said the CEO of an aviation services company.

Have any questions about installation? Contact us and we’ll be happy to explain how it works, and address any special concerns you or your customers may have about materials and processes.

AirSweep keeps the sweets flowing

Happy Valentine’s Day! Did you get any chocolate or candy today? We love a sweet surprise—most of the time.

R. M. Palmer, a leading candy manufacturer in the United States, had issues with cocoa powder clogging their hoppers. During manual cleaning, it would spill on their workers and turn them into “giant cocoa puffs.”

Read about how AirSweep fixed the problem, and even lowered their energy and maintenance costs. Now that’s what we call a sweet success.

Also, see what happens when you don’t have AirSweep installed in a candy plant.

Webinar Sponsorship: Key Considerations to Develop a Basis of Design for an Effective Bulk Material Storage System

AirSweep and Powder Bulk Solids will be holding a free webinar on selecting a silo design for effective material flow on December 7, 2021.

Poor silo design can affect material flow, and cause storage and discharge upsets. The webinar “Key Considerations to Develop a Basis of Design for an Effective Bulk Material Storage System” will help participants understand the key factors for operational success, and how to develop a design document that they can share with equipment vendors.

The webinar will be held on December 7 at 2pm Eastern Standard Time. Topics will include different types of storage systems, common flow problems, and the key parameters for a design document. Speakers include Eric Maynard, Vice President of Jenike & Johansen.

Click on this link to register for the event.

3 Reasons Why Willy Wonka Needs an AirSweep

It’s been 50 years since the release of the classic film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the story of five kids who get a chance to win the world’s biggest candy plant and realize all the possible things that can go wrong inside it.

Because we all know it takes a lot of work to make all that candy, and anything can go wrong in each stage of production.

To celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary, Powder&Bulk Solids wrote a brilliant article on 5 Things Manufacturers Can Learn from Willy Wonka’s Factory. It’s funny, but also painfully true. For example, Violet Beauregard is a berry good example of the importance of product safety.

Dear Mr. Wonka – can we interest you in an AirSweep?

AirSweep can’t really do much about exploding blueberries, but there are ways we can help you with potential problems in production.

Does your material flow look anything like this? AirSweep can resolve bridging, arching, and other problems to get it moving out of the vessel.

Are your workers still manually cleaning your vessels? You can use the AirSweep to automate your cleanouts, just like how it’s used by one of the world’s biggest infant formula manufacturers.

And AirSweep is also ATEX-certified for potentially hazardous and explosive environments.

So, if you know how we can get in touch with Mr. Wonka, please let us know. We can help him manage the little problems that affect his production and spoil the fun.

And we can help you, too.

When you’re not worrying about material flow, you can focus on things that really matter. And for all the Willy Wonkas running a factory where things (and occasionally, giant blueberries) can blow up any time, that’s the best happy ending.

5 Challenges of Bulk Material Handling

Bulk material handling equipment is designed to quickly move and process tons of material a day—and theoretically, requires minimal manual intervention.

In reality, many plant managers are plagued with material flow problems that slow down the entire process. Silos and hoppers get clogged, and workers have to stop everything they’re doing to hit them with a hammer. Material residue clings to ribbon blenders or mixers, and have to be flushed out with flour.

It’s tedious, time-consuming and can significantly affect productivity and costs. A cement company that had issues of shale hanging on the silo wall estimated that they lost $12,000 for every hour of downtime.

Even state-of-the-art equipment will run less efficiently if material isn’t flowing properly from one stage of the process to another. Here are some of the most common material handling problems, and how companies were able to solve them to get production back on track.

No flow/Poor flow

Material Flow problems can happen in practically any bulk material handling equipment, but there are three issues that are really common among silos and hoppers.

Material can form a stable arch over the outlet (bridging and arching), which can block material flow completely, or, it forms a stable open channel, but leaves stagnant material at the side (ratholing). According to Processing Magazine, “Ratholing can lead to erratic flow and reduce the bin’s live capacity by 90%.”

A material’s property can affect its tendency to form very cohesive arches, and how it responds to flow aids. Damp, moist and sticky materials will not respond to gentle aeration, and can even become more compact when vibrated or agitated.

AirSweep uses powerful air pulses which can lift even the most problematic materials.

Material segregation

Differences in particle size, density and chemistry can lead to material segregation. This becomes a problem in downstream processes, when the bulk solids need to have a uniform composition. If segregation isn’t addressed, it can affect the integrity of the formula, batch uniformity, package weights, and flowability.

Bulk powders that have poor flow properties such as fine-grained titanium dioxide—one of the commonly used nano-materials—have a tendency to segregate. A paint company used it in their new product formulation; the material would not completely empty out during the batch cycle, and it took 50 minutes to transport it a distance of 325 feet. Installing AirSweep VA-12 units effectively reduced batch time to 15 minutes.

Bulk material contamination

If equipment is not efficiently cleaned, stagnated material can contaminate any new materials that are loaded into it. This can affect the product quality—size, color, texture—and even its safety.

Material contamination can be a nightmare for food companies that have to recall products if there is any suspicion that their formula has been compromised. “The average cost of a recall to a food company is $10M in direct costs, in addition to brand damage and lost sales,” said Food&Safety Magazine, citing a joint industry study by the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

A manufacturer of spices and flavorings used ribbon blenders to custom-blend ingredients. Their method of manually flushing with flour was labor-intensive and expensive, so they replaced them with AirSweep VA-12 Tri-Tri units. These not only completely cleaned the equipment, but could be conveniently removed without tools for frequent sanitizing.

Machine damage (and worker stress)

Hammering a vessel leaves dents and cracks, but even the strain of the material build up can cause structural stress.

The small cracks in the vessel can worsen over time, and even be aggravated by some kinds of material flow aids like agitators, vibrators, or air cannons. Eventually, the vessel will need to be repaired or even replaced.

Don’t discount the damage that these material flow aids can do to your workers, too. Bunge, an agribusiness and food ingredient company in the US, had issues of rice bran clumping in their hoppers and silos. “Workers had to hammer the vessels, which was ineffective and stressful for everyone in the factory. It was like fingernails on the chalkboard. You wanted to get away from it,” said John Pappenheim, Bunge’s Maintenance Manager.

AirSweep proved to be a more effective—and incredibly quiet—alternative. The air pulses lifted the rice bran back into the flow stream, and its faint hiss was further muffled by material in the vessel. Everyone in the plant could work in peace.

Material pile-up

Barnes Concrete supplies ready-mix concrete to the Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey tri-state area. The feeder loads up to 250 tons of gravel per hour. Any equipment malfunction or failure in the production line could lead to an avalanche of material.

“It would be a train wreck [to be] buried with that amount of gravel,” said plant supervisor Joe Kruzewski. He estimates that it would take three people at least three hours to shovel one ton of gravel. “We would have to shovel for days!”

Material pile-ups can happen to any plant and any industry, and can be avoided with a very small and relatively inexpensive part: a DAZIC zero speed switch. It can be attached to the rotating shaft of any equipment to detect abnormal changes in speed. So if equipment is running too fast or too slow, it sends out an alarm so you can switch off the process before a pile up occurs.

Improve material flow in material handling equipment

AirSweep releases powerful air pulses to improve material flow in bulk material handling equipment. What issues do you have with bulk material handing, and how can we help? Contact us and we’ll be happy to customize a proposal for you.

Material flow: How to improve it in silos and hoppers

Engineers and plant managers are often tasked to design or recommend the right container for storing and handling bulk solids. They have to weigh several factors — capacity, storage duration, installation cost, and how well it protects the material from moisture and pests.

But there’s another factor that greatly affects productivity and can lead to expensive hidden costs: the material flow. Some containers are more prone to bridging and arching, particularly above the discharge. This can affect productivity, product quality, and profit.

Let’s look at the two most common containers – silos and hoppers – and how to promote reliable material flow in them.

Overview: Material flow: How to improve it in silos and hoppers

Silos and hoppers are prone to different material flow issues. In the following slide presentation, you’ll learn the difference between the two and how material flow can help improve their performance.

What’s the difference between a silo and a hopper?

Silos are the oldest storage vessel used by man. Credit: Michael Trolove / Grain Silos at Manor Farm

Silos are used for bulk storage. While the earliest silos were primarily used to store extra grain, modern silos can hold any kind of material: cement, black carbon, plastic resins, wood chips, and more.

Common types include tower silos, bunker silos, and bag silos.

Hoppers are used for temporary storage or measured feeding systems. They come in different shapes: cones, wedges, pyramids, or a combination of these.

Common material flow problems

Ideally, any material in silos and hoppers can be discharged quickly and consistently to prevent production delays or accumulation of stagnant material that can spoil or contaminate the next batch. However, many plant managers are plagued with material blocks in their production line.

Ratholing

Material builds up on the vessel walls, restricting the flow and the vessel’s full storage capacity. When the flow channel empties and material flow ceases, it can form a stable rathole that may collapse and block the opening.

Bridging or arching

Materials interlock or bond together to form an arch above the outlet, blocking any flow. The strength of this arch depends on the cohesive strength and internal friction of the particles. Hammering or blasting with an air cannon can break the arch, but this can overload and damage the vessel.

Segregation

If the vessel is filled with different particle sizes, it’s natural for finer particles to collect at the center of the bin, while coarser particles stick to the slope. The variable, inconsistent material discharge can affect product uniformity.

Factors that affect material flow in silos and hoppers

A hopper shows hammer marks from workers who tried to clear material blocks.

Material properties

Some materials are more prone to arching, bridging or segregation. Fine powders, small particles and sticky materials have a higher cohesive strength and tend to bridge or compress along the vessel walls.  

Other factors include bulk material density, the pressure applied by its weight in storage, permeability, and tendency to retain moisture. Ideally, these material flow properties are considered while choosing the silo or hopper design. 

Vessel angle

If the hopper walls are not steep or smooth enough, the material won’t flow down the vessel walls. It will cake and build up, or if it has enough cohesive strength, it can bridge over the outlet or form a rathole as it empties out.

The hopper angle depends on the friction between the powder and the walls, the friction between powder particles, and the shape of the vessel.

Vessel shape

Generally, square feed hoppers work better for bulk materials with uniform pellets. However, when there is a large variation of particle size — like when virgin material is combined with plastic regrind — circular hoppers allow for a more gradual compression.

Outlet and feeder

The size of the outlet, the discharge rate, and the interface of the feeder can all affect material flow at the bottom of the vessel. This is particularly problematic for materials that have greater cohesive strength and bulk density, or have a tendency to segregate or spoil.

Steep cones or wedge-shaped hoppers may be able to promote mass flow. Flow aids can also break any bridging or arching above the discharge.

How to improve poor material flow in silos and hoppers

Material flow aids can help break through bridging and arching and promote on-demand flow. These can include:

• Mechanical flow aids like vibrators or agitators
• Pneumatic flow aids like fluidizers and AirSweep
• Chemical flow aids like fumed silica

Each flow aid will have its pros and cons. Some are better suited for certain types of bulk solids. For example, vibrators can actually compact moist or dense solids like flax or whey protein, while fluidizers are only effective for light powders like flour. (Get a competitive analysis for different kinds of flow aids.)

Flow aids can be retrofitted into silos and hoppers. This can be more cost-effective than replacing the bins or having them custom-made. Some of them, like the AirSweep, barely require any modification of the silo or the hopper since they are installed on the wall with a mounting bracket.

Finding the “right” flow aid also depends on the type of material, or the size of the silo or hopper. We can provide a customized proposal based on your process. 

Contact us to find an affordable and reliable solution to arching, bridging and other material blocks. 

Control Concepts and AirSweep partner with Kansas State University Bulk Solids Innovation Center

Control Concepts Inc. announced it will provide AirSweep® units to the Kansas State University Bulk Solids Innovation Center (K-State BSIC), as part of a partnership to train students and professionals on how to handle bulk materials. Through this donation, AirSweep – a material flow leader – aims to provide professionals with hands-on experience and tested solutions to material blocks.

Designed for on-demand material flow

An AirSweep unit will allow instructors to demonstrate efficient handling of bulk solids and other materials with pneumatic flow aids.

AirSweep technology is particularly effective for materials that can’t be handled by fluidizers and other pneumatic flow aids. Each powerful pulse of the AirSweep nozzle directs a high-pressure, high-volume, 360-degree burst of compressed air or gas, which lifts material back into the flow stream.

AirSweep’s ability to work with many types of bulk solids — from powders, pebbles, to dense or moist compounds — will be particularly useful for observing material flow of different materials. Through proper positioning and timed release, it can create on-demand, first-in/first-out flow to prevent stagnation, spoilage, and other issues that affect product quality and production speed.

Empowering the next generation of plant managers and productivity experts 

K-State BSIC is the only university-based, unbiased entity in North America dedicated to improving bulk solids handling.

Aside from the classroom unit, AirSweep units will also be installed at the Center’s 13,000 square-foot lab. This facility is where bulk test materials flow is tested for clients who come from various industries in the US and around the world.

Todd Smith, business and strategy manager for K-State BSIC, welcomes the partnership between the Center and Control Concepts’ AirSweep.

“We look forward to adding the AirSweeps to our full-scale bins as well as a cut-away unit for use in demos and short-course education. Our Center has the most state-of-the-art facility for bulk solids research and education, and the AirSweep system is an excellent addition for controlling flow of challenging materials.”

Control Concepts Director of Sales Paul Rose sees the partnership as a strategic move for both institutions. “AirSweep is a unique material flow aid that stands in its own category. There’s nothing else on the market that can handle wet, sticky and difficult bulk material flow challenges. The addition of AirSweeps allow the BSIC to round out the solutions they have on offer, so that their clients can make the best-informed decisions for their needs.”

About Control Concepts Inc.

Since 1951, Control Concepts Inc. has helped solve material flow issues in plants around the world. We have tens of thousands of systems installed worldwide, and clients that include both S&P companies and SMEs.            Our patented technologies are used in every industry because they are reliable, cost-effective, and have an amazing track record. We also have the longest warranties in the industry.

When you install a Control Concepts product, you can walk away and focus on other parts of the plant. Our AirSweep® bulk material activation system ensures on-demand material flow, AcoustiClean® Sonic Horns replace manual material clearing, and DAZIC® and RotoGuard® Speed Switches prevent expensive equipment pileup.

For more information: www.Airsweep.com

About K-State Bulk Solids Innovation Center

The mission of the K-State Bulk Solids Innovation Center is to support industry by improving technology and knowledge related to powder and bulk solids handling. Services to industry include material properties testing, education classes, product and equipment testing, research, and consulting projects.    https://bulk-solids.k-state.edu/

Media Contact:

Elena Verlee
For Control Concepts, Inc.
604-947-2930