Based in Boronia, Melbourne, Enmin Vibratory Equipment has been designing, manufacturing and installing world-class vibratory equipment in Australia for close to 40 years. The company’s expertise has assisted most of the leading food processors to find elegant solutions to their materials handling requirements, either as Enmin’s direct customers or by helping OEM equipment manufacturers to incorporate Enmin vibratory modules into larger food-processing systems.
Most people have little to no understanding of how vibration can be used in product handling. However, this technology has been successfully used in many materials handling applications for years and can be of great benefit when it comes to cost-efficient materials handling and packaging processes.
Vibratory equipment can be applied in a wide range of processes:
Moving product from A to B
In most production processes there are requirements to move ingredients, parts or finished product from one point to another. Automation is critical to productivity and a vibratory feeder provides the ideal solution. It offers a range of significant advantages over a conveyor, including:
- It is easy to install.
- It is hard-wearing.
- It is highly compatible with hygienic environments.
- It is easy to clean.
- There is no carry-back on the belt return.
- There is no contamination of product.
- It can move horizontally or vertically.
- It requires little maintenance.
Screening
While the product is moving from A to B on the vibratory feeder, why not add a screening function? A scalper/fines screening module can perform various functions without retarding the full flow of product: it can remove unwanted product or contaminants such as clumps from cereal, oversized or joined biscuits, or stalks from sultanas; or it can extract fines such as cereal dust or product crumbs
Sizing
It’s not a big jump from a scalper/fines screen to using a vibratory system for more exacting selection of product size. A wide range of screen types and apertures are suitable for use with a vibratory feeder, though a degree of expertise is needed to select the right combination for the application.
Stockpiling and progressive release
Adding a hopper and loading it up in one go, means a vibratory feeder can be ready for hours of production, eliminating repeated manual de-bagging, and freeing up that operator for other duties. Automated control of the vibratory feeder will progressively release the product as required by the production process.
Sorting
Many natural products (nuts, berries, etc) are more valuable when packs contain the same sized product. Sorting product into size groups is therefore an important value-adding step for many food processors. Variations in bulk density can be used to sort product into two or more streams.
Metered flow
A vibratory feeder is also ideal for applications that require a metered flow of product. At the design stage, tray dimensions and amplitude of vibration can be optimised to deliver calibrated product flow. Furthermore, the vibratory drive can be pulsed or switched from external sensors to regulate the flow of product for when it is needed.
Alignment
Many products need to be aligned for further processing or for packaging, such as hotdogs, carrots or fish. Some just need to be in parallel lanes, some need to be presented head first, some need to be right-side-up, and some need all of the above. A cascading vibratory feeder, with attachments to suit the product, handles this task with ease.
Blending ingredients in-line
Using a combination of vibratory hopper feeders with metering controls, ingredients can be added in correct proportions and blended while being conveyed to the next processing step.
Compaction
Vertical bag filling in many cases can result in a pear-shaped bag evolving, which makes subsequent packaging into cartons or onto pallets more difficult. Bagged products that are to be palletised must stack firmly if they are to be transported safely, without the stack collapsing and causing ruptured bags, product loss and danger to people working in the area. To overcome this problem the Enmin Bag Flattener automatically shapes the filled bag using the company’s unique Controlled Vibration and pressure action.
Spreading
Some production processes require the product to be presented in a uniformly thin layer. Using a vibratory feeder to evenly distribute product going into a conveyor-fed drying oven optimises drying performance and product quality, while reducing the high energy costs of the drying process.
Sprinkling
An automated vibratory feeder has proven to be the ideal mechanism for sprinkling icing sugar on cakes or chocolate flakes on cheesecake.