January 27, 2016
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Riverdale Global has developed a material handling system that automatically refills one or more drums of liquid color during the molding or extrusion process. That eliminates downtime for switching drums and reducing the occurrence of transitional or off-spec product, with little or no color.
The pump-equipped drums remain sealed while color is metered to processing machines. The RGInfinity auto-refill system eliminates the need to replace the drums when empty, by refilling them from a large central container, or “tote.”
One central container can serve one machine, or, if desired, be configured to refill multiple machines running the same color.
Each drum is mounted in a Riverdale Gravimetric Stand (RGS), which monitors the weight of color in the drum and signals a pump valve on the tote when the drum is nearly empty, and again when it is full — preventing uncolored material.
“Without the RGInfinity auto-refill system, operators of extrusion and molding lines often choose to generate off-color product during drum replacement, rather that stopping production,” said Kevin Cabana, Riverdale’s vice president of process technologies. “The resulting scrap material must be culled out, removed from the work area, and disposed of.”
Riverdale Global is based in Aston, Pa.
Email [email protected], www.riverdaleglobal.com.
