Dustless bag-filling system puts material in, takes dust out
A company installs a dustless bag-filling system to reduce fugitive dust and improve production.
Western Pozzolan Corp., Doyle, Calif., extracts natural pozzolan (also called Lassenite Type N natural pozzolan) from a surface mine located in Lassen County, Calif. The company trucks large pozzolan chunks to its plant near Doyle and grinds, screens, and packages the material for use as a soil amendment for reducing the irrigation requirements of lawns, gardens, golf courses, and other sports and agricultural fields. In the past, the company used a top-loading gravity-discharge bagger to package the pozzolan in 25-pound plastic bags. However, the bagger produced excess fugitive dust that pervaded the plant, increasing housekeeping and production costs and creating potential operator safety issues. The bagger was also slow, filling just 5 bags per minute. To solve these problems, the company worked with a supplier of a new dustless bag-filling system