A global manufacturer of over-the-counter spice blends came to AZO with a small request that turned into a hard engineering problem: they wanted operators to pour ingredients directly into an existing mixer.
The mixer was ours, and they'd bought it years earlier. They’d already added a bag dump on another line with a usable mixer opening. The challenge was that this line didn't have one. Instead, we needed to cut a hole in the top of the working mixer, but it had very few places where a hole could safely go. Here’s how we solved it.
The blends running through the line are mostly salt with flavorings, and particle sizes vary widely from very fine powder to coarser granules. The mixer homogenizes it all before dropping it into the packaging system.
The mixer’s performance maintains product consistency, which is what made the request tricky. The mixer had a tight footprint, and the geometry of the top limited the opening’s placement. Clearance between the mixer tool and the vessel wall needed to be close by design, but put a hole in the wrong spot, or let the fabrication distort the vessel, and the mixer blade would start rubbing.
There was also a good reason to dump straight into the mixer rather than route these ingredients through storage and transfer. Some of them are fragile and don't survive conveying well. Others are hygroscopic and pick up moisture, or agglomerate easily. And some are used in small enough quantities that storing them somewhere and moving them later costs more than it saves. Sometimes an operator preweighs ingredients into a bucket and pours that in.
Dust was the other factor. Operators handle 20 to 50 lb paper bags, cut them open by hand, and pour. Chili and onion powders in particular would be hazardous if they end up in someone's face.
We designed and fabricated a custom bag dump station and a new mixer opening to accept it. The opening needed an asymmetrical discharge, with an offset built into the vessel.
Three details drove the design:
The station itself has a hinged door and a shelf that supports the bag while the operator pours through a grid. Dust collection pulls airborne powder away from the operator's breathing zone during the pour.
We worked with the manufacturer to get the modification right for the application. Our design was manufactured in the U.S. We then worked closely with the customer and their engineering firm throughout to confirm alignment and fit-up before anything was cut. The expectation going in was that the unit would fit as designed, and it did. Our field service rep verified that the mixer remained within certain tolerances, as heat from welding can warp or deform the metal and impact the performance of the mixer.
Operators now discharge bags directly into the mixer. The ingredients that don't convey or store well, or simply aren't used in enough volume to justify either, go straight where they're needed. Plus, dust mitigation keeps operators safe during the pour.
Most of the work on this project happened before anything was fabricated: measuring the inside of a mixer, mapping how the ingredients should travel, and designing a vessel around those constraints. This is where we shine: using our expertise in engineering to thoroughly assess a problem to develop the solution.
The customer got a usable bag dump on a line that had no obvious place for one, and a mixer that continues to perform the way it did before we showed up.
Transform your ingredient handling system and workplace with cost- and time-saving solutions. Contact AZO to connect with an engineer.