It all started when pigment manufacturers could offer titanium dioxide at a lower price per pound when they supplied the material in bulk bags.
The major buyers of their TIO2 product are paint manufacturers. These paint manufacturers would mix the pigments in their disperser mixers. The normal method of loading these mixers is by dumping 50-pound sacks of material into the mixer.
Bulk Bag unloading with a DFB Unloader is an efficient method for handling pigments.
The problem in buying bulk bags or super sacks of material is the paint manufacturers have no method of efficiently unloading the bulk bags. Also, several paint manufacturers have older plans with low headroom making it a problem to elevate a bulk bag over their disperser mixer.
The Direct-From-Bag or DFB unloader was developed to solve these problems. The standard DFB consist of a bulk bag lifting bracket. This bracket is set on top of the bulk bag. An operator attaches the bulk bag lifting straps to the bracket arms.
Using a forklift, the operator lifts and transports the bulk bag using the bracket. Next, the operator aligns the lifting bracket socket to the mating stub on the slide of the unloader lifting mast.
The video explains how the bulk bag is positioned in the DFB Unloader
Positioning a bulk bag on the DFB Unloader is hard is to explain so if you click on the video below, you can see how it works.
Forklift driver lowers the forklift forks until the entire load of the bracket bulk bag is supported on the unloader mast. Operator lowers the bulk bag to the bulk bag support ring. The operator then opens the bag spout and stretches the opening over the top of the DFB discharge hopper.
The bulk bag discharge is firmly clamped. The bulk bag is then raised till most of the slack is removed from the bags outlet spout.
Depending upon the type of conveyor purchased with the DFB unloader, the material is transferred to a disperser mixer or next piece of processing equipment and runs until as the bulk bag is empty.
Several features can be provide to get maximum from the DFB Unloader.
The DFB unloader is furnished with several options to get maximum value out of the piece of equipment. The unit can be furnished with casters for moving the unloader from one process to the other.
The unit can also be provided with a weighing system so the material can be batch weighed as part of an ingredient to the recipe.
A STINGER® conveyor can be furnished to convey the material to the optimum mixing rate
The STINGER® can also direct the material to the disperser mixer vortex to provide faster and more efficient mixing. Besides loading the material into the process faster, the DFB unloader is safer to use than adding 50-pound bags into a mixer hatch opening.
If you see the advantage of using the DFB unloader in your plant, you can see a demonstration of the DFB unloader using your raw materials at our test lab in Muncy PA. Rental units are also available so you can see how the unloader works in your process.