Sugar is an extremely common ingredient and often included in many bulk ingredient handling operations, such as snacks, mixes and blends, and candy confectionary. Whether it’s handled in a granular, crystalline form or as a powder, sugar is hygroscopic (which leads to clumping) and generates highly combustible dust.

Bright white and used in a variety of everyday products, TiO₂ is an extremely common ingredient in many bulk ingredient handling operations, including personal products, poly and plastics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Characterized by fine particles that flow poorly, TiO₂ is moderately abrasive and forms heavy, dense clumps.

Bits, morsels, and inclusions are the large, identifiable ingredients often used in manufacturing food such as snacks, candy confectionary, and mixes and blends. Inclusions are often explicitly advertised on product packaging, so their presence is both expected and verified by consumers. Bulk ingredient handling of bits, morsels, and inclusions requires a high degree of expertise. 

Depending on their source — either animal or vegetable — milk and cheese powders have either high fat or high protein content. Either way, milk and cheese powders complicate bulk material handling. Whether they’re used in producing snacks, mixes and blends, or candy and confections, ensuring their smooth flow through a process is key to effective bulk handling. 

Incorporated into a variety of products in unique and exacting formulations, resin is a diverse ingredient category that includes applications in PVC dry blends, plastics, and chemicals. Further, it is often toxic and generates highly combustible dust. These critical attributes can make successfully conveying it safely and without clogs challenging.

Using mixes and blends as ingredients to produce snacks, candy confectionery, or baking mixes and blends, requires several considerations to ensure the mix remains blended through production and packaging processes. The key to their effective bulk handling is in the engineering and design of an automated bulk process solution.

Composed of very fine, non-porous particles of silicon dioxide (SiO₂), fumed silica powder has a high surface area and light density. Due to its extremely high surface area, it is an effective thickening and reinforcing agent in many products.

A type of crystalline silica made from pulverized sedimentary rock, diatomaceous earth comes in many forms, including pellets, particles, or powder. In its powdered form, this naturally occurring ingredient has a high surface area and light density. It is an ingredient used in a range of beverage and food grade filtration applications and in many industrial applications.

The vast range of bulk ingredients used to manufacture snacks — including flour, sugar, bits, morsels, & inclusions, and cheese powder — is just one of many challenges faced in the snack industry. Beyond managing the variety of unique snack ingredient characteristics, bulk handling systems must also provide dependable first-in/first-out flow to maximize product freshness, maintain batch control, preserve product purity, and mitigate dust.

Integrating polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with various ingredients to manufacture PVC dry blends demands a high level of process accuracy. Regardless of the exacting standards required for your blend formula, AZO’s bulk ingredient handling systems precisely measure and dispense resins, modifiers, stabilizers, additives, fillers, and minor ingredients into extruders in the right amounts.

Personal care product manufacturers handle a broad range of expensive bulk dry ingredients — including TiO2, fumed silica, and super absorbent polymers — to create the necessities consumers rely on daily. Minimizing waste, ensuring accurate handling, and safeguarding product integrity are key concerns.

Whether it's dry mixes for homemade baked goods or powdered blends for seasoning a meal or flavoring water, the vast range of bulk ingredients used to create mixes and blends — such as sugar, bits, morsels, and inclusions, or milk powder — is just one of many challenges faced in the industry.

Candy and confectionery makers handle a diverse array of bulk dry ingredients — including sugar, bits, morsels, and inclusions, and milk powders — to create mouthwatering temptations. Beyond managing the variety of unique ingredient characteristics, dry bulk handling systems must also provide dependable first-in/first-out flow to maximize product freshness, maintain batch control, preserve hygienic conditions, and mitigate dust.

Manufacturing pharmaceuticals — such as prescription or over-the-counter-medications — requires handling a broad range of expensive bulk dry ingredients. Powders such as TiO2, finished mixes & blends, or diatomaceous earth are used to make the medications consumers rely on to improve their health and well-being.

Plastic formulations must match the exact standards required across the broad range of plastic products available today. Further, the plastics manufacturing industry demands a high level of process accuracy.

To ensure accurate, evenly-dispersed chemical blends, AZO’s bulk ingredient handling systems precisely measure and dispense compounds and ingredients — such as resins, TiO₂, fumed silica, or diatomaceous earth — into blending machinery at exactly the right time.

Bulk bag dump stations are specialized equipment designed for efficient and safe handling of bulk ingredients. There are two types of bulk bags: 50- to 100-pound bulk bags or 1,000- to 2,000-pound super sack bulk bags.

Measures taken to improve material flow of powdered or granular ingredients from bulk storage into a pneumatic conveying system are known as material conditioning. If material is clumping together or has poor flow characteristics, there are multiple ways to address these issues.

The terms “controls" and “automation" are closely related and often used interchangeably. At AZO, we prefer not to use them this way, as each has specific functions related to plant processes.

Bulk ingredient delumping crushers break down large clumps or agglomerations of powdered or granular ingredients into smaller, more manageable particles for easier handling. This equipment is found throughout multiple industries.

Bulk discharging of large quantities of solid ingredients or materials is a common process in nearly every industry. No matter what the material might be, efficient operations require large volumes of raw ingredients to be unloaded, moved, or transferred for further processing or production.

Discharging bulk ingredients from bulk bags — also known as super sacks or flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs) — can be a challenging task with a poorly designed bulk bag docking station. Heavy and cumbersome, bulk bag spouts must be manually opened and attached to a docking station for discharging.

Ingredient dosing systems for dry bulk ingredients are designed to accurately measure and weigh large quantities of materials, including powders. They are used in various industries, such as food processing, pharmaceuticals, and chemical manufacturing.

Bulk bag fillers in large-scale ingredient packaging streamline the packaging process and improve operational efficiency. There are many types of bulk bag fillers; some operate manually, some are partially automated, and others are completely automated.

A vital process in many manufacturing operations, efficient bulk ingredient measuring and dosing requires both speed and precision. The optimal dosing solution accurately measures ingredients to ensure consistent, repeatable recipe formulations for a wide variety of products produced on a single manufacturing line.

Engineered for precision and efficiency, pneumatic conveying of bulk ingredients utilizes the force of air or specialty gas to move bulk materials through intricate pipelines from delivery to storage to production.

Whether used in food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, or countless other industries, accurate bulk ingredient weighing and batching is a critical component in ensuring product quality, consistency, and safety.

Bulk ingredient screening, often accomplished with vibratory or rotary screeners, is more than a mechanical operation. It's a prudent strategy that safeguards against product inconsistencies and production inefficiencies. By sifting out undersized or oversized particles — as well as foreign material — bulk ingredient screening favorably impacts the composition of the final product.

As manufacturers navigate production, the seamless and strategic management of raw materials in the manufacturing plant is of high importance. Bulk ingredient storage involves the safe and systematic handling and storage of essential materials that comprise various products.

The AZODOS® dosing unit type P … DV allows for the volumetric dosing of powder products into weighing and production processes. In connection with a weighing device, the unit can be built up to the AZODOS dosing unit type P … DW, which allows for the gravimetric feed of product into production processes.

Bag tipping stations, also known as feeding hoppers, are used to feed powdery or granular bulk materials into closed systems. From foodstuffs and plastics to chemicals and pharmaceuticals, AZO’s bag tipping station keeps materials with the highest requirements safe, while ensuring the comfort and safety of the system’s operators.

AZO’s heavy-duty super sack unloader — or bulk bag unloader, as it’s also called — is designed to unload and discharge any and all materials from bulk bags. With a wide range of options and features to choose from, as well as the ability to configure your own unloader, you’re positioned to maximize safety and efficiency for your unloading operations. 

Big bags have become a permanent fixture in the handling of bulk goods. With reliable bag filling systems from AZO, you can get the most out of your big bags in production. A high level of reliability is paired with an operator-friendly setup for the ultimate solution.

COMPONENTER® batching equipment from AZO offers a highly accurate, automated dosing and weighing system for minor and micro-ingredients. The system is as flexible as it is robust, allowing for unique solutions that can be used in a variety of industries.

When transferring product from containers to downstream receptacles, one of the top priorities is to keep the workplace and operators protected. The AZO docking system allows for easy handling while preventing contamination to the environment. This makes the system especially useful for any environments that have high hygiene standards.

The AZO DFS dosing screw allows for the continuous and discontinuous conveying and metering of bulk materials in conveying lines, scales, and more. These units are suitable for nearly all kinds of bulk materials in the food and beverage, plastics, chemical, and pharmaceutical industry.

When dust and impurities enter the vacuum generator in a conveying system, it can lead to malfunctions. AZO’s integrated and secondary filters provide an added layer of protection for convey systems. Reliable conveying system operation allows for reliable product feed into processing machines.

Some bulk materials have a tendency to form agglomerates, clods, and lumps. AZO lump breaker units are designed to reliably and gently break apart these chunks of material. It's an assurance materials are clump-free when they reach the next processing step.

AZO^® MIXOMAT combines four key processing stages — transporting, dosing, weighing, and mixing — in one compact, economical system. Bringing these stages together in a single system achieves an exemplary degree of efficiency in production.

AZO’s sampling unit type PRS is used for the removal of samples from a product that is passing through droptubes or a gravity-fed hopper. The screw shaft inclination and drive can be adjusted to suit sampling capacity needs.

Top-notch production means making sure that contaminants don’t interfere with high-quality raw materials. AZO screeners ensure foreign materials never have the chance to enter your production process. It’s a safeguard your bulk solids and liquids need to support quality assurance.

AZO’s vibration bottom, or VB for short, allows for the reliable discharge of powdery, crystalline, high-fat, and granular bulk materials from hoppers. The simple and sturdy system is suitable for nearly all materials in the foodstuffs, plastics, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries.