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Ingredients are dumped into hopper at right. Vacuum line at upper left goes through wall to pumps in adjacent area.

Desired increases in production rates and some changes in products forced a major food processor and packager in the Northeast to consider upgrading some of its material handling and processing operations.

One definite bottleneck was a blending operation. Ingredients were vacuum conveyed into the vee-blender by a method known as direct loading. A 2 1/2" diameter vacuum line from a 10 horsepower vacuum pump, located in an adjacent room, was attached to the cover on one leg of the vee. creating negative pressure in the blender. A 2 1/2" flexible hose was attached to the cover on the other leg- A wand on the other end of the hose was used to draw ingredients from a small hopper or from bags directly into the blender.

The single 10 horsepower pump could not produce enough air flow at high enough vacuum to meet the increased production demands. Equally important, a product containing 1 1/2" to 2" long noodles was added to the array of products to be blended in the department Expert opinion was that the noodles were certain to jam in the 2 1/2" line and that minimum 4" lines would be required. This. in turn meant more power yet to maintain satisfactory air velocity in the lines to convey the materials.

The solution proposed by VAC-U-MAX engineers provided all of the power required to handle the most difficult ingredients at desired rates and also provided means to customize the air flow to the particular ingredients being handled at any time.

Left to right, new adjustable-speed vacuum pump, new guard filter for existing pump, existing pump and new primary filter

In addition to 4" conveying Incise and vacuum lines, a second 10 horsepower vacuum pump was proposed to operate in parallel with the existing pump. This new pump would be equipped with a variable frequency drive so its speed could be varied to adjust the volume of air it would evacuate from Vie blender, A more efficient cartridge type filter, similar to the one on the new pump, would be substituted for the inadequate guard filter on the existing pump. The old primary filter located between the blender and the pumps, whose purpose was to collect any fines that were carried over from the blender during loading, was outdated, had no filter cleaning provision and no discharge provision. A new state-of-the-art floor standing unit. with air pulse filter cleaning and a 6" dump valve which discharges the carryover material each time the vacuum is turned off, was proposed.

Each pump would be connected to the vacuum line through a 4" valve, enabling the operator to use either pump separately or both simultaneously. Experience with the various ingredients would dictate at what speed the new pump should be run and whether both pumps would be required for each material. Quick connect adapters on the blender covers and couplers on the material hose and vacuum line hose speed connection and removal of hoses. Both hoses must be disconnected and securely positioned in a micro-switch cradle (dummy hose station) before the blender can be operated.

All proposed equipment was installed in the fall of 1993. Each system component was furnished complete and ready to run, requiring only anchoring and connection of hoses, electric power and control air. Conveying rates and the handling of all ingredients have been more than satisfactory. Consideration is being given to replacing the small hopper with a bag dump station to speed up dumping and reduce spillage and dusting.