Six steps to improving loss-in-weight feeding accuracy
Today's market is demanding increasingly better process control, end product quality, and performance verification. This means that feeding dry bulk materials with gravimetric equipment -- either a loss-in-weight continuous or loss-of-weight batch system -- is more popular than ever. But many users are less than completely satisfied with their systems' performance. If you're in this category, read this article for six steps to improving your system's feeding accuracy. The article concentrates on loss-in-weight continuous feeding systems, but the principles also apply to loss-of-weight batch systems.
A loss-in-weight feeding system has three main components -- a feeder, scale, and controller -- as shown in Figure 1. In operation, the feeder delivers material to a process at a rate determined by weighing the material remaining in the hopper above the feeder. The system can provide better than 1:1,000,000 weighing resolution.