Bulk materials handling without contamination when manufacturing toners
The raw materials are supplied in big bags or sacks depending on the product. The individual raw materials are classified on the one hand by the fineness of their particle size and on the other hand by different colour pigments.
The big bags are placed in discharge stations. The big bag discharge openings are sealed using connection system so they are dust-tight. The discharge stations have discharge aids such as vibrating tables or tumbling devices. Dosing screws dose the raw materials into the vacuum line leading to the conveying scales. The components are weighed there directly using the gain-in-weight method.
The sacks are discharged and supplied to the system via several feeding hoppers. From there, depending on whether they are medium or micro components, they are weighed into the bulk materials container using the gain-in-weight or loss-in-weight method.
This so-called BATCHTAINER® is on a movable scales in the AZO COMPONENTER® and collects the raw materials components depending on the allocated formulation. Due to the variety of formulations with different colour pigments, the bulk materials containers are allocated to these specific formulations. This helps to prevent possible contamination between different formulations.
The roller conveyors installed in the discharge and receiving area of the AZO COMPONENTER® enable buffering of BATCHTAINERS® and result in optimum use of automatic weighing.
The full bulk materials containers are then supplied to the mixing and filling process.
The Kastor process control and instrumentation system with formulation management ensures that production is both reliable and efficient and that the plant, mixer and filling operate at capacity.
