A spice and flavorings manufacturer uses IBCs at their facilities in Holland, Germany, the UK, and Canada. The raw spices are ground, blended, and packaged into various sized containers from Bulk Bags to small packets.
The client currently uses batch processing with conventional stainless-steel IBCs and a competitor’s cone valve to handle the ground spices between process points. The major problem is that the vegetable oils extracted from the spices during milling are extremely aggressive to the elastomers, the photograph shows the degradation of the competitor’s discharge station. The client wants to reduce the amount of maintenance time to repair this damage, which normally takes a full day to complete. And since they did not want to replace or modify 200 IBCs, the solution must be able to accommodate their existing IBCs.
After initially recommending a standard ISL “Upgrade” station, we considered their problem in more detail. The hygiene cover on the existing station is continually immersed in the product, which is where the problem begins. The ISL upgrade station would need to be fitted with a funnel and direct the product towards the center of the discharge chute, thus minimizing the product/elastomer exposure to a mere dusting. This feature is already incorporated it. Note that this is a standard feature on ISL Cone Valve IBCs.
Maintenance can be accomplished in a matter of minutes with a complete dismantle, clean, and reassembly. Since the installation in July 2002, a replacement liner has yet to be ordered.