Flowforce Technology’s engineers have designed a new impact weigher to solve engineering and global supply challenges.
A typical impact weigher will often position the impact plate in the material flow stream.
This helps them to measure the material flow in gravity feed applications, but it can put the sensitive electronics at risk of being damaged.
Flowforce Technologies managing director Glenn Jobling said that a load cell can only withstand a certain amount of force before it is irreparably damaged.
“A force-sensing element that has the capacity to handle three kilograms can break if five kilograms of force is applied to it – something that can happen during the production process or during maintenance,” he told ABHR.
“That’s why we developed the Magneflo impact weigher 13 years ago.”
Flowforce Technology’s Magneflo series of impact weighers uses magnetic technology to remove the force-measuring device from the process stream entirely.
This allows the impact weigher to safely handle hazardous materials, such as explosive dust and grain, and means that cleaning can be done in-place, without risking damage to the sensitive electronics.
However, because the previous system relied on magnets, it meant the Magneflo was unable to handle magnetic materials.
Jobling said the new Series 5 Magneflow impact weigher has solved this issue by moving the magnetic components outside of the process stream.
“This means the weigher can handle magnetic materials, but also means it can handle high temperature materials and sticky, fluffy materials like kiln dust in the cement industry,” he said.
“The new design also features non-stick and high-wear coatings, which have enabled us to add more features.
“It is also one per cent more accurate, which is important for low flow rate processes.”
One of the key reasons the company designed the new Series 5 impact weigher is to help customers replace obsolete impact weighers.
Jobling said Thermo Fisher Ramsey announced it would no longer support the DE 10/20 model impact weigher.
Bulk handling businesses began looking for an alternative, but replacing an impact weigher takes time, and therefore would reduce productivity.
“We decided to create a direct replacement model that could be bolted in,” he said.
“It was developed during COVID-19, but travel restrictions stopped us from launching it to the market.”
“We have successfully installed 24 of the new devices for a South African client, and they’ve been running for more than two years successfully.”
After having seen global success, the company has set its sights on Australian applications.
The Series 5 impact weigher can be swapped out quickly, fitting into the envelope of the former impact weigher. Jobling said with Flowforce Technology, the swap can take as little as four hours, with no need to re-engineer anything.
The company can also modify each impact weigher to ensure it suits the application, which helps support the customer’s operations.
“Customers help drive our research and development efforts,” Jobling said. “They may ask us to take certain features from one of our impact weighers and include them in another. They may need a sampler, or they might have simpler calibration methods.
“This has led us to developing innovations like the Magneflow Series 5, which we’re excited to begin distributing throughout Australia.”
Flowforce has also developed a cross cut sampler that can be optioned onto the new Series 5 to weigh specifically for mineral sand and rare earth customers.
