National Bulk Equipment bulk material blending system

The National Bulk Equipment (NBE) Bulk Material Blending System is designed to aid in process GMP validation; provide precise, automated performance; and improve operator safety.

The fully automated, self-contained, bulk material mixing system blends a combination of five, highly caustic, free-flowing powdered additives with a sluggish flowing, high dusting base ingredient. The base ingredient is automatically introduced into the system from a single, 64 cubic-foot (1.8 m³) surge hopper that feeds either of two horizontal screw conveyors, depending on the blend recipe and the material requirements of downstream packaging operations.

The caustic, free-flowing additives, previously manually added to the process, are input to the system using five, NBE Lift-and-Seal drum dumper units. Each drum dumper unit has an automatic centring system to ensure a precise seal of the drum to the dumper unit’s custom-designed discharge hood. A 340 kg-capacity, hydraulic carriage lifts the drum up 4 m to the discharge point and rotates the drum 180° for a dust-free seal of the 304-2b stainless steel discharge hood to the receiving surge hopper.

A pneumatically actuated slide gate valve controls material discharge from the drum into the hopper to ensure uninterrupted supply to the volumetric feeder. Automated controlling of the volumetric feeder’s variable frequency drive gearmotor and pneumatically actuated diverter valve ensures properly blended material is supplied at the correct volume to the specified downstream packaging operation.