Blending of the components in its correct ratio (metering)
Keeping a constant ration and quality long time (mixing)
The easiest and cost-effective way to blend is the batch blending process as far as batches up to about 2000 kg are concerned. We have Big Bin machines with a capacity ranging from 200 to 2000 kg. The batch is preassembled in the correct ratio. Say four bales and a sack and a handful of fibres. There is no limitation on the number of components. We have customers that blend micro components of 0,2 %.
The components are dropped in the Big Bin. The special floor moves the bales slowly to the multiple strong opening rolls with steel teeth. The opened fibres are blown back into the Big Bin, when all bales are opened the floor moves fast to mix the layers. It takes about 30 minutes and the blend is ready to be processed by the card line or to go to a press.
For small kg/h production the Big Bin can be operated like a continuous system by adding one or two of our 3 m wide Reserve Towers. By this trick the time it takes to make the blend can be compensated by the material in the reserve, so the card can continue to run.
Another simple way to do a blend is by using a bale plucker like maxiFLOC, SwiftFLOC or CONTi FLOC with a blend laydown. This is used when very exact ration is not necessary. The blend has to be composed of bales with similar height. The large number of bales in the laydown, 50 and more allow to assemble blends according to kg per bale and number of bales. The Big Bin compensates the unevenness at the top and at the end of the bale laydown.
When specific blends form very different bales have to be run or documentation of every drop of a scale is necessary a scale system must be used. A scale unit consists of reserve tower, weighing scale and opening unit for the drop. This unit is fed by a designated bale opener. Single bale opener like microFLOC or multibale openers like maxiFLOC and CONTiFLOC can be used to feed the weighing unit. We offer weighing units with a capacity of up to 2000 kg/h per component. The drops of the weighing unit drop on a belt that feeds to an opening unit. The belts are synchronized and the first mixing is done in the common pipe of all blending units. The Big Bin with a capacity of 2000 kg serves as a long term unificator of the blend that is composed out of the drops from different bales.
Another way to combine batch and continuous blending is to use bale opening and weigh pans to feed a basic fiber to an exotic blend that is blended batch-wise. For example, if you have three basic fibers A, B, C and want to do a blend A/C plus exotic D/E/F, you then, by using the weigh scales, put in, for example, 1000 kg A, 500 kg C and manually add 200 kg D, 150 kg E and 150 kg F, and then start the Big Bin to get a perfect blend of these six components. This just shows how these machines can be used in a clever way to give a very flexible and low man power solution to mixing and blending.
