Sterling 100, 600, 015, SLC 5/04, 060 specifications Ingredient Weigh Hoppers

hoppers are not controlled nor read by the blender. Their existence is solely for the use of a low level alarm to be wired into a separate controller. These would not be present on a standard blender.

The hoppers may be equipped with a polycarbonate sight glass. This is mounted in the upper cone section of the hopper. This is useful for a quick reference of the material level in each hopper.

The supply/re-fill hoppers should be vented to the atmosphere through the louver located on the lid of each hopper. This louver is required to prevent the loading system from creating a vacuum in the hopper, which would prevent material from flowing out properly. This situation could be caused by a leaking discharge seal on the vacuum receiver.

Ingredient Weigh Hoppers

Each ingredient weigh hopper assembly consists of a conical mass flow weigh hopper, a precision load cell and a discharge tube disc seal. A mass flow weigh hopper is a steep degree conical hopper with vertical side walls with a discharge tube on the bottom. Each weigh hopper is sized to the blender ingredient metering requirements. This assembly is responsible for weighing the material ingredients as they are metered out by the metering auger assemblies located below each weigh hopper. The manufacturer believes this is the best way to weigh free flowing pelletized materials. This design allows the hopper to weigh only the material and nothing else, unlike other systems that weigh the heavy auger assemblies. This design eliminates extra variables, such as auger drive vibrations, etc. from the weighing system and increases the load cell resolution. Each weigh hopper will be refilled periodically as material reaches the preprogrammed low weight setpoint for that hopper. Clear hopper side walls or sight glasses are provided on each on the weigh hoppers to allow the operator to monitor the levels.

Continuous Loss-in-Weight Blenders Chapter 2: Functional Description 15