Emerging technology: Agitation in dry material feeding
Keeping dry materials flowing from metering devices into processing systems has long been a problem. Dry materials tend to be sticky, to bridge over the metering screw, or to pack in the hopper. This can cause discrepancies in feeding accuracy, consistency, and uniformity.
To feed dry materials accurately from a screw feeder, you must ensure two things. First, the screw flights must be completely filled with material of uniform density. This means that the material cannot compact or segregate. Material compaction and segregation will cause some flights to be filled with a denser material and others to be filled with a lighter material, which creates an erratic feed rate.