How to Fix your Weigh Belt Feeder without major changes to your process

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Weigh Belt Feeders have been widely used for many years to measure the flow rate and totalization of solid materials in a process while providing a feed device to move materials through that process.  For some products they can be accurate enough to keep in your process and deal with their calibration issues, but for some products, they can be a maintenance nightmare and something that needs to be replaced.  However, with their large footprint and complex installation, finding a replacement feeder that fits can be a real issue.

One way to deal with this maintenance issue but to still have that vital process measurement is to install a flow meter that can be installed at the end of a belt conveyor.  Since the Weigh Belt is in essence a belt conveyor, it would be used as just a material handling device and not a flow meter.  Once such a device that can fit in such a tight space is the CentriFlow Type I meter from Eastern Instruments.



The Type I meter is designed to be fed with a horizontal feed device like a belt conveyor or vibratory conveyor.  For a belt conveyor, the meter can be positioned just at the end of the belt and the trajectory of the product flow off the belt will allow it to slide through the meter's flow surfaces, providing excellent accuracy.  The graphic below shows an example of how the meter would look installed at the end of a belt conveyor.



The Type I meter comes in multiple widths/sizes and be fit to just about any width belt, and in some cases can be mounted directly to the housing or shrouding that covers the existing Weigh Belt.  The small size and ease of installation makes the CentriFlow a great choice for fixing the measurement issues associated with the Weigh Belt.  When positioned at the end of the belt, the accuracy of the measurement is typically in the +/- 0.25% of full scale range.  It is repeatable, dependable, and requires no maintenance, so all that is left to deal with is the maintenance on the belt conveyor portion of the Weigh Belt.  In fact, if the total removal of the Weigh Belt is desired, just replacing it with a simple belt conveyor and a CentriFlow can be a very inexpensive way to solve the problem as well.

For more information on the CentriFlow Solid Mass Flow Meter please check out our website at easterninstruments.com/solve my problem, give a call at 910-392-2490 or email us at sales@easterninstruments.com.

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