Mobile single-column barrel emptying plant
Electric or pneumatic powered lifting devices are used in many industries for lifting and positioning heavy supplies. In connection with an eccentric screw pump, also barrels with highly viscous media can be emptied quickly, safely and semi-automated.
Numerous customers from the bottling, manufacturing or packaging industry need to empty highly viscous liquids from a variety of 200 liter barrels quick, clean and as simple as possible. In many of these applications, it is no longer enough for a pump manufacturer to offer only a single pump.
The barrel pump manufacturer JESSBERGER has, therefore, developed in the field of eccentric screw pumps, as the company logo and the text „pumps and systems“ shows from a pure pump manufacturer to a system supplier who can offer complete solutions in the field of automation, dosing and control technology in addition to pumps. In recent months, numerous special designs have been supplied to renowned German companies. An example of a semi-automated barrel emptying highly viscous media is the mobile single-column barrel emptying plant.
Mobile single-column barrel emptying plant for four barrels on a pallet
One of the leading companies in the field of baby food produced daily vegetables, fruits and juices for babies and toddlers. A eccentric screw pump with a lifting device facilitates there now emptying numerous barrels of high viscosity tomato paste and especially the handling of the barrels.
In the daily operation producing a variety of barrels with a very thick, triple-concentrated tomato paste (solids content 36 to 38%) must be pumped.
The tomato paste is here supplied in 200 liter barrels with liner, where in the filling process there are four barrels on a pallet.
Barrels of high viscosity, heavy-flowing media are emptied in the normal case with a barrel emptying plant in which a vertical eccentric screw pump is also equipped with a follower plate with rubber sealing lip, which allows virtually residue-free emptying of barrels. However, an essential prerequisite for the use of such barrel emptying plant are cylindrical and especially undamaged barrels, in which the sealing lip of the follower plate, the inner wall of the barrel wipe clean.
In the present case, the customer often get damaged and dented barrels delivered. Dented barrels can ultimately result in jamming of the follower plate in the barrel and were therefore an unsuitable solution. The technicians of JESSBERGER and the plant management of the baby food producers therefore opted for a vertical eccentric screw pump without follower plate.
Due to the number of barrels to be emptied every day, however, a solution had to be developed that allows rapid evacuation of four on a pallet located 200 liter barrels with an emptying time of a maximum of three minutes per barrel without moving the barrels. For this requirement, a new development of single-column barrel emptying plant arose, whose construction is described in more detail below.
Construction and operating methode
In the mobile single-column barrel emptying plant a vertical eccentric screw pump is mounted in food execution to a mobile truck with a movable boom. By means of a double-acting pneumatic cylinder it is moved together with this swing arm in the lower or upper end position.
In this position, the truck is locked by another pneumatic cylinder, for reasons of safety at work. The swing arm is then moved through a third pneumatic cylinder in either the left or right working position.
For the filling process every four barrels with tomato paste be moved on a pallet to the system and prepared for emptying. For this purpose, first, the removable lid of the 200 liter barrels should be removed. Then the liner are cut and placed over the pan edge to the outside. Using a pallet trolley the pallet with the four barrels will be placed so close to the barrel emptying plant until the pump is centered above a barrel of the first row. After that the pallet is lowered to the floor.
Operating methodes and controls
By pressing and holding the key „Pump-DOWN“, the lifting device is unlocked and lowered the pump by means of the pneumatic cylinder to the exhaust position in the barrel. After reaching the end position of the emptying process is started by pressing the „Pump ON“. Due to the ease of use and design of the single-column barrel emptying plant the transfer procedure must be monitored only by one person. Once the barrel is empty and the pump sucks air, the liner is slightly raised, so that the remaining liquid can be run together in the middle and pumped out. At the end of the pumping operation, the pump is switched off by pressing the „Pump off“ to prevent a dry run. If turn off is overlooked, after a preset duration, the automatic shutdown of the pump.
The pump is then pneumatically moved to the upper position by pressing and holding the key „Pump-UP“ and locked.With the help of pneumatically actuated swing arm, and by pressing the „Pump-RIGHT“ (or „Pump-LEFT“), the pump is pneumatically positioned above the middle of the next barrel to be emptied and the discharging operation starts again as described. By repositioning the pallet, the barrels of the second row will be emptied in the same way.
The eccentric screw pump is designed in accordance with the EHEDG guidelines for food use. All parts in contact with the medium are approved according to german and american (FDA) law for contact with food. The construction also paid attention to low surface roughness, easy disassembly and the avoidance of dead volumes. Due to the easy disassembly of the pump is easy to clean. It is driven by a gear motor whose speed can be adjusted by a frequency innverter to the requirements.
The mobile lifting device consists of a U-shaped frame made of stainless steel hollow sections. At the two arms each have a lockable guide roll and a fixed bracket are attached. A pipe bracket serves as a steering device. On the connecting bridge between the two arms, the mast of stainless steel profile tube is fixed. On the mast a mobile truck made of stainless steel goes with maintenance-free ball bearing plastic rollers. A support arm made of stainless steel is pivotally mounted on the lift truck at the end an eccentric screw pump is attached.
The electrical control of single-column barrel emptying plant was programmed by JESSBERGER and is housed in an elegant steel box. As part of the PLC functions are optimized to the needs of the customer. The pneumatic control system is housed in a separate box.
Construction of single-column barrel emptying plant
The barrel emptying plant is almost completely made of stainless steel and consists of the following components:
Vertical eccentric screw pump in food design.
Wheeled truck with a movable boom.
Electrical control in a shapely steel control cabinet.
Pneumatic control in a separate switchbox.
Filling process with four barrels
Emptying of four 200 liter drums located on a pallet with a discharge time of maximum three minutes per barrel.
