A chocolate and confectionary manufacturer based in the UK frequently use hoppers for storing bulk food ingredients such as sugar, cocoa beans and emulsifiers, which are then discharged at the bottom.
One of their hoppers containing small dry toffee pieces was causing some production issues. The toffee pieces were not sticky as you would imagine, but they were simply refusing to completely empty around a suction lance.
White food quality Silicon cone shaped pad rated to 200 degrees C. Complete with stainless steel stud, washer and hex nut, and white sealing washer.
The company decided to retrofit some vibrating aerators from AKO UK to aid with the flow rate of the small dry toffee pieces. Because this was a food manufacturing plant, the aeraors needed to be food quality so the white food grade pads with stainless steel connections were used.
Just two white food quality aerator pads were purchased by this company to begin with, which made dramatic positive effects to the product flow and considerably reduced downtime. A few months later, four more aertaors were ordered for another hopper, and then the following month a further eight were purchased to retrofit onto another food ingredient hopper on the same plant to prevent caking.
An additional advantage to this company was that the aerators are metal detectable, so could be found easily if accidentally lost inside a hopper or silo.
