Vacuum Feeder

The vacuum feeder is composed of an oil-free and water-free vacuum pump, a stainless steel suction nozzle, a conveying hose, a PE filter (or 316L stainless steel filter), a compressed air backblowing device, a pneumatic discharge door device, a vacuum hopper, and an automatic material level control device. The entire system is reasonably designed and exquisitely manufactured.

Vacuum feeders are divided into two types: intermittent discharge and continuous discharge. Intermittent discharge is conducive to reducing the investment cost of equipment and facilitating material level control. In most cases, we recommend users to adopt the intermittent discharge type. Continuous discharge is generally used for vacuum conveying of materials in long-distance and high-yield scenarios.

The vacuum feeder is a vacuum conveying equipment for powdery materials, granular materials, and powder-granule mixtures. It can automatically convey various materials into the hoppers of equipment such as silos, packaging machines, injection molding machines, and crushers. It can also directly convey mixed materials into mixers (such as V-type mixers, two-dimensional mixers, three-dimensional mixers, etc.), which reduces the labor intensity of workers and solves problems such as dust overflow during feeding.

Also known as a vacuum conveyor, the vacuum feeder is a dust-free closed pipeline conveying equipment that transports granular and powdery materials by means of vacuum suction. It utilizes the air pressure difference between the vacuum and the ambient space to form gas flow in the pipeline, driving the movement of powdery materials to complete the conveying of powders. China has introduced foreign vacuum technology, continuously improved and refined it, and now it is widely used in various light and heavy industries such as chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals, food, metallurgy, building materials, and agriculture and sideline industries.

Vacuum conveying is a closed pipeline conveying method. This conveying method can avoid dust pollution to the environment, improve the working environment, and at the same time reduce the pollution of materials by the environment and personnel, improving cleanliness. As it is pipeline conveying, it occupies a small space, can complete the conveying of powders in narrow spaces, and makes the workshop space neat and elegant. Especially, it is not limited by the length of the distance. At the same time, the vacuum feeder can reduce manual labor intensity and improve work efficiency.

Working Principle of Vacuum Feeder:

The vacuum feeder is a type of vacuum conveyor that uses an electric vacuum pump as the vacuum source. With this vacuum feeder, materials can be directly sent from containers into mixers, reactors, hoppers, tablet presses, packaging machines, vibrating screens, granulators, wet granulators, dry granulators, and crushers. This machine reduces the labor intensity of workers, eliminates dust pollution, and ensures production.

The vacuum feeder uses a vortex air pump to extract air, making the inlet of the suction nozzle and the entire system in a certain negative pressure state. The powder and granular materials are sucked into the suction nozzle together with the external air to form a material-air flow, which reaches the hopper through the suction pipe, and gas-material separation is carried out in the hopper. The separated materials enter the material-receiving equipment. Feeding and discharging are completed by the continuous opening and closing of the pneumatic directional valve, and the opening and closing of the pneumatic directional valve is controlled by the control center.

The vacuum feeder is equipped with a compressed air backblowing device. During each discharge, the compressed air pulse backblows the filter to knock off the powder adsorbed on the surface of the filter, so as to ensure the normal operation of suction.

For the vacuum feeder with material level control, the automatic feeding of materials in the hopper of the material-receiving equipment is completed through a level gauge. When the hopper of the material-receiving equipment is higher than a certain position, the vacuum feeder stops and enters the standby state; when the material level is lower than a certain position, the vacuum feeder starts automatically to complete the feeding of the material-receiving equipment.

Advantages of Vacuum Conveyor:

• The conveying pipes of the pneumatic vacuum feeder can be flexibly configured, making the factory's production process more reasonable;
• The conveying system is fully enclosed, with minimal dust flying and escaping, ensuring environmental hygiene;
• It has few moving parts, making maintenance convenient and easy to achieve automation;
• It has high bulk material conveying efficiency, reducing packaging, loading, unloading, and transportation costs;
• It can prevent the conveyed materials from being dampened, damaged, or mixed with other impurities, thus ensuring the conveying quality;
• During the conveying process, multiple process operations can be realized simultaneously, such as mixing, crushing, classification, drying, cooling, dust removal, and other chemical reactions;
• It can realize long-distance operation of conveying materials concentrated at multiple points to one place or distributing materials from one place to multiple points;
• The pneumatic vacuum feeder has a simple structure, which is convenient for manufacturing, processing, and installation, with low control costs and short construction time;
• It has high conveying efficiency, and there is no return transportation for the equipment;
• It is conducive to realizing bulk transportation, saving packaging materials and transportation costs;
• During the conveying process, intermediate treatments such as sorting and drying can also be carried out independently;
• It can convey materials in a heated state and play a cooling role during the conveying process.

Maintenance of Vacuum Feeder:

Before starting the machine, a preliminary inspection of the vacuum feeder should be carried out. The main inspection is to check the sealing of relevant parts such as the suction valve of the vacuum pump and pipe joints. Only when the sealing is good can it be ensured that the equipment will not have faults in the subsequent work and the work can be carried out stably.

Observe the internal working condition of the feeder. Once abnormal conditions occur or the internal vacuum degree decreases, the machine should be shut down in time and the machinery should be overhauled. If any parts are found damaged, they should be replaced immediately. In addition, the vacuum pump also needs to be cleaned at any time to keep the inside of the pump clean at all times.

After the equipment is used, attention should be paid to cleaning the vacuum feeder, and a comprehensive cleaning should be done, and all parts should be inspected.