Project layout
Seven plus six: that’s how many hoppers mark the work line. Seven dedicated to the loading phase, which are filled with basic components, additives and pigments, and another six aimed at unloading the silos; all connected and coordinated by dedicated collection and transport lines. Indispensable, to guarantee the desired flows, is the attention paid to the “granular solid phase”, declined in the characterization of the mechanical properties of the products, in the specific variance of the friction angles, in the influence of the stationary and fluidized phase on the storage and outflow of the particulate.
Starting from the static and dynamic analysis of the materials, we work on the sum of a series of addends in order to obtain the correct inclination angle of the hoppers with respect to the vertical, to thus establish the most appropriate way to introduce the product.
The quasi-static and aerated regimes detected allow us to configure tailor-made tanks, as well as to define the relative unloading section based on the hourly mass flow rate to maintain the precision of the required doses. We start with the bag and big bag emptying hoppers – with a capacity of up to 2,000 liters – to continue with weighing hoppers and cyclone scales – 200 and 1,200 liters respectively – and arrive at the 43 m3 storage silos.
Bag and big bag emptying hopper
The cylindrical containers of the tanks are equipped with integrated filter elements with counter-air flow cleaning (which follows the selected programmed cycle), while the final converging sections have an aerated (“vibrated”) bottom, so as to ensure total emptying of the hopper and thus avoid the potential risk of compaction of the material.
By exploiting the “parasitic” capacity variation, the capacitive level indicators instead record the oscillations of the quantity of product present in the container with respect to the pre-established threshold value.
The dosing cycle of the weighing hopper, in gravimetric mode and with weight increase, is implemented by means of screw conveyors equipped with “bridge-breaking” reels, which significantly reduce the aggregate stability of the powders.
Feeding in gravimetric mode
The load weight control is entrusted to the individual bending cells, which stop the screw conveyors (with consequent closure of the valves) when the set setting value is reached. A tubular fabric sleeve filter, supported by the internal load-bearing basket, controls the reduction of the particulate material, dragged by the localized suctions.
For the collection and distribution operations, the loading hoppers are connected by a pneumatic transport system with a fluid flow in suction, to feed the cyclone balance hopper, and with a fluid flow under pressure, to fill the storage silos.
Cyclone balance hopper
In the cyclone hopper (which has a capacity of 1,200 liters), thanks to the depression created with a vacuum pump, the material meets the gas flow and mixes with it, thus improving its flowability by reducing intermolecular forces. The spiral motion of the current, subjected to the action of centrifugal force, progressively loses the solids, which fall to the bottom by gravity, while the gaseous fraction is returned to the discharge.
The components thus fluidized reach the mixer through two butterfly interception valves, where they are mixed dry – with the dry blend technique, according to the masterbatch method – while the introduction of the raw materials into the extruder is coordinated by the chain transport systems that, along three parallel tracks, also serve the entire battery of silos.
Chosen for their performance efficiency, the chain transport systems are particularly suitable for the transfer of materials over long distances and in circuits that include multiple loading and unloading points; they allow changes of direction, to overcome differences in level and heights, to reach high verticality. Characteristics that are added to the simplicity and practicality of use, fundamental paradigms of maximum operating economy to guarantee the most complete usability of the system.
STATE AID AND DE MINIMIS
Information obligations for public grants.
State aid and de minimis aid received by our company are contained in the National State Aid Register referred to in art. 52 of Law 234/2012 to which reference is made and which can be consulted at the following link: Learn more>>
