In the Animal Nutrition industry, manufacturers need a flexible processing system that is well suited to the production demands of today’s fast paced market. Frequent recipe changeovers, consistent product flow and blend segregation can be just some of the challenges they face.
In this blog, we explore more of these challenges to understand why Cone Valve technology is the system of choice for animal nutrition manufacturers to ensure they deliver consistently high quality products in an efficient manner.
Common Challenges faced by Animal Nutrition Manufacturers
Segregation of Ingredients
Powder formulations discharge at different rates, therefore certain recipes of mixed ingredients are prone to segregation as the particles move if handled incorrectly. This leads to a poor final product and considerable waste.
Adding Liquids
When liquids are introduced (for example a manufacturer adding oils to enrich a recipe) powder consistency changes, increasing the propensity of the product to segregate or get stuck in the container. If this happens, discharging the product can become a major challenge as common issues such as powder bridging arise, stopping the flow of materials.
Product Integrity
Food hygiene standards are as important in animal nutrition as they are in human food production, with strict guidelines on the preparation and mix of recipes. For animal nutrition manufacturers this means that they need to create consistent batches, each containing the right quantity and uniform mix of ingredients so that a single serving always contains the same balance of nutrients.
The Solution
The Matcon Cone Valve has been developed to address these issues which are common occurrences across the animal nutrition manufacturing industry.
To understand how Cone Valve Technology addresses these challenges, watch the short video below to see the Cone Valve in action.
What is Cone Valve Technology?
Invented, patented and developed by Matcon, this discharge device has been designed to handle and control virtually any powder type (even when other systems have failed). This innovative technology has been put through its paces in some of the most stringent manufacturing environments across the world, from pharmaceutical and infant nutrition through to food manufacture. Achieving the highest product standards in these heavily regulated markets means that the Cone Valve is production ready for the animal nutrition market and is proven to eliminate the common challenges faced by animal nutrition manufacturers including:
- Blend Segregation
- Powder Bridging
- Blockages of powders, stopping product flow
- Rat holing of powders in containers, leading to product getting stuck
- Lack of control of flow of the powder recipe
How the Cone Valve Works
Powders and even cohesive materials are encouraged to flow via internal cone vibration. The sealed Cone Valve lifts and lowers to ensure correct, measured discharge. With a very controlled and complete discharge, customers no longer experience ‘bin rash’ or need to hammer bins to release ingredients, which means no more wasted product left in the container.
With the capability to handle more free-flowing powders without the need for additional feeders via a variable height lift, the Cone Valve is not only effective but delivers a significant return on investment.
Maintaining the integrity of the blend right through to the final pack relies on the quality of your discharge equipment. This is again where the Cone Valve is a fundamental factor in maintaining the recurrent quality and regulatory conformance of your products. Particles that move around during the transfer and discharging processes can re-segregate causing costly rejected batches. The Cone Valve protects blended product during transfer and discharge stages by facilitating the mass-flow of materials through a ring-shaped opening at the gateway of each IBC.
This design means that all the product contained in the IBC layer moves at the same time. This eliminates particle rolling, segregation and none-moving pockets of material ensuring that a homogenous mix of quality product is manufactured, and every batch is equal.
Control the Flow of Your Ingredients Using the Cone Valve
The IBC system is a contained, sealed system, designed for dust-free material handling. This assured containment is important to manufacturers using sensitive ingredients that need to be contained whether that’s through allergen risk or flavour strength or fine air-borne prone particles. Animal nutrition manufacturers require hygienic environments to meet strict legislative guidelines - a Cone Valve system is unbeatable in this situation when compared to Butterfly or Slide Valve IBCs that aren’t able to successfully shut off the flow of materials once discharge has commenced. The Cone Valve can be shut off at any time, stopping the flow of material completely.
The Cone Valve in Action
Now that we’ve explored the challenges faced by animal nutrition manufacturers and why they turn to Cone Valve Technology to overcome these challenges, read about an actual animal nutrition manufacturer who has put cone valve technology into action to great effect.
