Pneumatic system cuts handling and batching costs of making hummingbird food
When Perky-Pet wanted to reduce ingredient and labor costs at its plant by switching from manual handling and batching, the company chose a vacuum pneumatic system and used silos for storage.
Perky-Pet Products of Denver produces hummingbird food and feeders. Although hummingbirds live primarily on a liquid diet, most commercially sold hummingbird food is packaged as a dry mix. To formulate this dry mix, Perky-Pet batches nearly equal proportions of dextrose and another sugar, the two main ingredients, into 55-gallon mixing drums that are dolly-mounted and hold about 250 pounds per batch. An operator then moves individual drums to a drum-tumbler, secures one drum to the tumbler, and starts the tumbler to mix the ingredients. The mixture is then packaged in 8-ounce bags by a form-fill-seal machine and placed on pallets.