CHICAGO — Weighing and blending systems featured by AccuRate and Conair Group at NPE 1997, held June 16-20 in Chicago, promise greater accuracy and easier cleanouts.
AccuRate's redesigned weigh-belt feeder boasts easy, fast belt removal, a new drop-in design for the weigh deck and ``belt influence compensation'' for electronic monitoring of belt weight, tracking and slippage. The compact 300/600 DEA typically is used for pressure-sensitive or irregularly shaped materials.
AccuRate, the Whitewater, Wis., unit of Darmstadt, Germany-based Schenck AG, also debuted software for its Series 8000 gravimetric controllers. It claims Rapidstart allows inexperienced operators to configure a loss-in-weight metering system and get it running within minutes. The company also touted master and slave configurations for loss-in-weight metering, in which the feed rate of the slave feeder is set as a percentage of the master rate.
Conair Group of Franklin, Pa., said its new Micro-Blender uses pneumatics for all major functions, including dispensing, metering and mixing. By eliminating mechanical augurs and electric motors, the unit is compact and targeted for small extruders and molding machines. The unit uses vertical dispensing valves that, in conjunction with new software, provide precise charges into a standard 400-gram batch.
The Pittsburgh-based company claims Micro-Blender's valves can meter as little as three or four pellets of color or additive. The basic unit is a four-position, four-bin blender designed for two major and two minor ingredients. Each bin's vertical dispensing valve can be removed easily for quick cleaning.