WEIGHING EQUIPMENT The food grade, stainless steel weigh belt feeder can be tailored to clients’ individual needs.
Weighing the benefits of feeder tech Food & Beverage Industry News speaks with Barry Gamble, business development manager at Tecweigh, about their range of products that are specifically tailored to the food industry.
D
esigning and manufacturing in-motion weighing and metering products in Australia, Tecweigh’s bespoke solutions are used in bulk handling applications for dry materials within the food industry, among multiple others. With more than 20 Years manufacturing experience, Tecweigh, located in Carrum Downs in Victoria and provides quality weighing equipment for the Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth areas. There are several products that sets Tecweigh apart from their competitors – these include their food grade, stainless steel weigh belt feeder and volumetric auger feeder. Built for accuracy, dependability and food grade hygiene, the weigh belt feeders offer great performance and easy calibration. Meanwhile, the volumetric feeder harnesses a simple design and has an internal agitation system that promotes product flow.
Weigh Belt Feeder Tecweigh’s business development manager, Barry Gamble, explains how the weigh belt feeder works for the food industry. “For the weigh belt feeder, the product arrives on a non-weighing section of the belt then travels over the weighing section and then over a second non weighing section before leaving the belt “he said. “It’s about mixing the raw product, recipe mixing, or batching. It works on many products and ensures each product is given the correct ingredients in the right proportions.” There are certain elements that can be custom made to cater to the clients’ needs, such as the belt width, belt speed and the height and depth of the material bed. “We custom engineer the product using the customer’s parameters of product bed depth, belt width, and belt speed to optimise and meet the flow
52 Food&Beverage Industry News | May 2022 | www.foodmag.com.au
required in either kilograms or tonnes per hour,” Gamble said. “It could have an Ethernet IP output to go into a PLC that can monitor the scale parameters in real time.”
We use parameters around depth, belt width, and speed to achieve the optimum throughput.”
High accuracy
Another feature of the Tecweigh weigh belt feeder is it minimises the amount of material build-up. On its continuous loop belt in the production line, once divested of its material the belt travels underneath where an ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) belt scraper cleans it as it moves. “The inlet and outlet chutes can be custom-made to fit the needs of the end user’s process,” Gamble said. “Sometimes a tank or hopper is installed above, the head of product sits there and as the belt moves along and drags the product out at the speed that’s required. After weighing the product is dispensed off the end of the belt through a flanged discharge chute”
The accuracy of the weigh belt feeder is +-0.5 per cent for a single idler weighing system, or +-0.25 per cent for a dual idler. Another factor Tecweigh has considered in their designs is how to contain the material on the belt for different applications. “Another important factor is containment of material on the belt which can be by a wave edge belt, or if they want a larger bed depth, they can use stainless steel side rails,” Gamble said. “We are talking to a customer who produce salads and because it is a much a lighter product than say potato, the product bed depth bed needs to be higher to achieve the same throughput.
Maximum accessibility, minimal build-up
