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[July 2002]
New Roller-Compactor Feeder from Alexanderwerk
Alexanderwerk AG (Remscheid, Germany) has addressed some of the difficulties encountered when handling and processing light, aerated powders. Using traditional roller compactors, air entrained in the powder is squeezed out by the rollers and has to escape somehow; most of it tends to flow backwards through the powder in the screw feeder and up through the hopper - moving against the flow and reducing throughput of the compactor unit.Alexanderwerk's answer is the Combi Vent feed hopper, in which a smaller, subsidiary feed hopper is placed over a double-helix feed screw ahead of the main hopper. The level of material in this smaller hopper is kept almost at zero and is said to then provide an easy, very low resistance exit point for the air being squeezed backwards from the compaction rollers.
Explosive forward venting of entrained air through the rollers is eliminated. Recycled materials are fed exclusively into the subsidiary hopper. The amount of material taken by the screws from the small, recycle/de-aeration hopper is slight compared with the main flow. It becomes properly mixed, therefore, with the main flow of material, as it passes along the screw feeder.
The benefits claimed for the Combi Vent are improved output, controlled de-aeration, constant flake and granule quality, smooth, shock-free compactor operation, reduced wear and tear of the seal between the screw shaft and the housing, and better control of the raw material feed.
Alexanderwerk is represented in the UK by Orthos (Engineering) Ltd.
www.orthos.uk.com
ENDS