Materials Handling: Enclosed Bulk-Bag Discharger

A new Bulk-Out Model BFC bulk-bag discharger from Flexicon Corp.., Bethlehem, Pa., has an enclosure to contain dust escaping through the seams or fabric of unlined bulk bags. White polymer panels enclose the sides, rear, and top of the frame, while clear panels on four hinged access doors allow monitoring the discharging process. A port on the rear panel allows venting of the enclosure to a central dust-collection system.
Intended for applications in which trace amounts of dust cannot be tolerated or when dusty materials leak through the bag itself, the enclosure works in concert with the discharger’s dust-tight bag-spout interface and expands the ability of the discharger to contain dust from all areas of the bag.

To maintain dust control at the bag spout, a manual clamp ring positioned atop a pneumatically actuated telescoping tube enables an operator to make a quick, dust-tight connection between the bag spout and hopper, and to automatically elongate the bag as it empties to promote flow and evacuation.

The discharger is also equipped with Flow-Flexer bag activators that raise and lower opposite bottom edges of the bag at timed intervals, loosening compacted materials and promoting material flow into the bag discharge spout. As the bag lightens, the stroke of the bag activators increases, raising the bag into a steep “V” shape, eliminating dead spots for total evacuation of material with no manual intervention.