◄ Diamondback Hopper

► Blenders

► Air permeation units

◄ Coal industry hopper

u Oscillating plate hopper

► Licensed fabricators

► Densifying screw feeder

◄ Milling industry  hopper

 

We can retrofit most hoppers with oscillating plates that decrease frictional forces in the direction of flow, reducing energy input and maximizing material discharge without hangups.  The Oscillating Plate Hopper works with materials too sticky or cohesive to discharge in typical hoppers.

Oscillating Plate Hopper

An Oscillating Plate Hopper improves the flow and handling of especially difficult-to-handle materials.  Placed along key inside flat surfaces of a hopper, oscillating plates reduce a material’s arching tendency by a factor of two when compared to typical hoppers, allowing materials to discharge without arching or ratholing through outlets half the normal size requirements.

 

The hopper also produces plug flow or a first-in / first-out flow pattern. The result is reliable, hangup-free flow for challenging materials like water soluble salts, powdered resins, fly ash, corn gluten and spent vanilla beans. These materials will discharge in an Oscillating Plate Hopper without steep hopper angles, prodding, vibration or hammering.

 

Typical applications

 

u   Feeding an eductor throat consistently, without hangups

u   Retrofitting existing hopper shapes to eliminate ratholing

u   Retrofitting existing conical hoppers to eliminate

      segregation flow patterns by providing flow at the walls

u   Providing consistent density feed to volumetric or

      gravimetric feeders

 

Features

 

u   Oscillating plates that retrofit most hopper configurations

u   Oscillating plates that decrease friction forces in the

      direction of flow and reduce energy input

u   Pneumatic or hydraulic-driven piston actuators

u   Motor-driven actuators

 

We warrant all Diamondback Technology hoppers for a period of nine months or longer if we test a material’s flow properties.

 

Oscillating plate hopper

case history: spice company

 

A spice company manufactures vanilla extract that produces spent vanilla beans as a byproduct.  Because the beans are soaked in alcohol, they are soft and sticky and  extremely difficult to discharge.  The discharge problem worsens significantly after only a few hours of rest.  The pungent odor after the beans sit for a few days suggests that some sort of reaction happens during storage.

 

Flow property tests on spent vanilla beans  showed a pressure sensitivity in bulk strength after only a few hours at rest that increased to a point of being able to arch almost anywhere in a conical hopper full of beans.  Even extreme vibration was ineffective, and because of its pressure-sensitive nature, vibration often compacted the beans, making the problem considerably worse.

 

We suggested an Arch-Breaking Diamondback Hopper as a solution for the vanilla beans. Although it is highly effective with cohesive materials, the Diamondback Hopper required oscillating plates to ensure complete and effective discharge after storage. 

 

The company retrofitted its existing conical hopper with an Oscillating Diamondback Hopper activated with pneumatic cylinders and solved an extremely difficult problem.

Copyright 2007 Diamondback Technology, Inc.

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