New Feeders Payback in Less Than A Year
A case history looking at how Acrison feeders saved a petfood company tonnes of non-reworkable productFor any edible product, consistent colouring is an absolute imperative—and this is as true for pet foods as it is for our own food. It was the challenge of ensuring accurate colour with minimal product wastage that led MRC, the UK's leading process engineering company in the animal feed industry, to approach dry solids handling specialists, Acrison International.
The task assigned to MRC was to help a pet food company improve production efficiency by reducing a loss through colour contamination of 1½-2 tonnes of product, every time it had a colour change.
In the past, the pet food company had hand tipped vegetable colourants into a hopper and conveyed it with the granular ingredients to the extruder.
By introducing the vegetable colourants much lower down the line, using three Acrison 170 flat-bed type volumetric feeders, MRC considerably reduced the amount of product to be purged.
The hopper and agitator design of the 170 feeders enabled Acrison to precisely meter the poor-flowing colourant powders, meeting the client's criteria for high accuracy feeding. In addition, the feeders' secondary discharge port ensured easy cleaning and a rapid product changeover.
MRC had to prove the system would work before installation. 'The Acrison approach was very professional, with fast response and a good service package. Our clients were very impressed with the Acrison test facility, and we had a machine on loan for a week-long site trial which really clinched it' said MRC project manager, Martin Wylie.
'It was very cost effective to change to this system. Once we had done the trials at Acrison, we realised that the payback period would be less than a year.'
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By introducing the vegetable colourants much lower down the line, using three Acrison 170 flat-bed type volumetric feeders, MRC considerably reduced the amount of product to be purged.
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The hopper and agitator design of the 170 feeders enabled Acrison to precisely meter the poor-flowing colourant powders, meeting the client's criteria for high accuracy feeding.