The Basics of Weigh Belt Feeders

The best material handling and metering method for a wide variety of products is a weigh belt feeder. These are usually the bulk materials utilized in a production process since mid-to-high rate applications are the most effective uses for the weigh belt feeder.

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This kind of gravimetric feeder works well with materials that are normally rather fee-flowing, including granular powders, pellets, or flakes. Very free-flowing items are not good for belt feeders since they will often flush through instead of resting comfortably on top of the conveyor belt.

Principal Components of the Weigh Belt Feeder

These are the weigh belt feeder’s primary components:

supplying the belt with bulk material at the intake feed area.

In general, the conveyor belt is rather brief.

the weighing apparatus that determines the product’s weight as it passes across the belt.

The speed of the conveyor belt is adjusted by the motor and speed control system.

The product flows appropriately into the downstream equipment thanks to the output area and belt scraping/cleaning mechanism.

How the Weigh Belt Feeder Operates

The weigh belt controller determines the actual feeder throughput by continually monitoring the product weight over a predetermined belt length and the conveyor’s speed.

The conveyor’s speed will then be adjusted to match the required feedrate, with little speed increases and drops to maintain the setpoint rate.

It is possible to attain an accuracy of around ± ½% of the setpoint using the appropriate materials.

Accuracy is affected by a number of factors, one of which is the belt’s weight, which must be precisely measured in order to replace it in the feedrate calculation.

Materials should preferably not flood or clump and should produce a fairly even profile on the belt, allowing for more constant weighing accuracy.

materials that accumulate over time and do not cover the belt, since this reduces accuracy. In most cases, this may be resolved by using the appropriate outlet and belt scraper combination.

The Advantages of Weigh Belt Feeders

For nearly the whole operational cycle, the weigh belt feeder is under gravimetric control since the weighted portion of the system does not need to replenish, unlike a loss-in-weight feeder.

The machine has a smaller footprint and less headroom than the comparable loss-in-weight feeder for feeders with large throughputs. For this reason, they are frequently used to materials with larger volume.

An open-sided system enables operators to see if everything is functioning properly if the material is not dusty. The system may be supplied with both fully enclosed and open-sided housings.

Because the product experiences relatively little mechanical activity as it moves through the system, a belt conveyor is frequently a far better option than a screw feeder if the product has to be handled gently.

Things to Think About When Using Weigh Belt Feeders

Since no feeding system is flawless, there are a few things to think about when deciding if the weigh belt feeder is the right tool. Among them are:

The weighing mechanism and other parts that are positioned around the conveyor belt may accumulate buildup for extremely dusty and/or sticky items.

The weigh belt needs to be periodically inspected and replaced, and a conveyor belt often needs more upkeep over the course of its lifetime than a screw feeder.

Very light materials might not create a deep enough bed to be precisely weighed.

Your material could have answers for each of these issues, and if necessary, we can set up product testing to guarantee the right feeder choice.

Knowing the difference between a weigh feeder and a belt weigher

Knowing how belt weighers and weigh feeders differ from one another is crucial for material flow monitoring on conveyor systems. Let’s examine these innovations and their unique benefits.

Belt weigher: Tracking the mass of materials moving

Belt scales, sometimes referred to as belt weighers, are a crucial component of the majority of bulk material handling facilities. By monitoring belt speed and weighing the belt load, a belt weigher measures goods on a moving conveyor belt. The pace at which bulk materials move past a certain position on a moving conveyor is shown by these dynamic scales. The mass per time is linked with the belt speed and load. Among the main attributes and uses are:

Important uses and functions:

using a conveyor to measure the mass of the product being moved or the flow rate.

has a variety of uses, including lawful trading, flow indicator, load out, control weighing, and totalizing.

Simple conversion to a belt conveyor system, either new or old.

Weigh feeder: Accurately controlling the flow of material

Compare that to a weigh feeder, which actively controls the material flow rate in addition to measuring the material quantity. For businesses like cement production, food manufacture, and animal feed and grain processing that need exact control over feeding processes, this technology is perfect. Among the main attributes and uses are:

Principal uses and functions:

For the best consistency in manufacturing, material flow rates should be maintained at constant levels.

increasing process efficiency through feed rate management.

making certain that ingredients are blended precisely during production procedures.

Distinguishing the objective

Despite the fact that both methods use a conveyor belt to measure material weight, they have different uses:

A belt weigher is a device that measures the overall weight of materials after a certain point in time.

Weigh feeder: Maintains a desired material flow rate by continually modifying belt speed, providing dynamic control.

Certain operating requirements within an industry determine whether to use a belt weigher or a weigh feeder. Whether you need precise material quantity tracking or precise production flow management, we provide customized solutions to enable industries with accurate and effective material handling.