The Side Feeders FLB are suitable to continuously feed the extruders with various powder products.Their typical use is in the plastic industry where mineral fillers are dosed in the extrusion lines for the production of tecnopolymers.

The Side Feeders FLB are also used in the extrusion plants for the production of polymer- based varnishes.

These machines have setting similar to the twin screw dosers BH and they use a couple of co-rotating twin screws as a dosing tool.

The Side Feeders FLB are installed on a side of the extruder in a forward position compared to main feeding inlet. The orientation of the dosing screws is orthogonal and coplanar as opposed to the extruder screws. The front side of the Side Feeder has a detachable module from the rest of the machine in a quick way. The module is directly bolted at the lateral inlet of the extruder and acts as a guide for a convenient and fast placement of the Side Feeder.

The detachable module, inside which the terminal part of the dosing screws are housed, has a completely watertight cylinder around that acts as a heat exchanger. This is aimed to keep low the temperature inside the module in proximity of the inlet to the extruder.

The exchanger has two welded inlet-outlet sockets for the cooling water that circulates with about 4 bar pressure.

The dosing screws are compenetrating full-flight profile or concave and self-cleaning.

Both dosing screws and the module which houses them are machined out manufactured to obtain very restrictive mechanical tolerances. This makes the side feeders FLB act as real “pumps for solid products”. The pushing action that the screws perform on the product force it to enter into the extruder and feeding results effective, continuous and regular.

The body of the Side Feeder FLB has a trough shape with a specific geometry suitable to house both the dosing screws and a horizontal agitator. This last one action is fundamental to avoid the formation of bridges that can occur mostly with compact and poorly flowing products. The horizontal agitator also feeds the dosing screws regularly and constantly, which is very important in order to have a good dosing repeatability.

There are different horizontal agitator models to choose according to the product characteristics. They can be equipped with different stirring tools such as blades, ploughshares, combs, helix and combination of these types.

The body of the doser is completely openable removing the front flange which is tightened with nuts and bolts. In this way it is possible to have access to the dosing screw and to the horizontal agitator that can be easily removed to be cleaned and sanitized.

The most used construction materials for the side feeder body and the horizontal agitator are stainless steel Aisi 304 and 316L.

The surfaces in contact with the product can be easily pickled or mirror polished in case of poorly flowing products. It is possible to have certifications of the contact materials on request.

The external surfaces are satin finished 180 mesh. It is possible to have them glass bead blasted or electro-polished on request.

In case of abrasive products or particularly heavy functioning, the dosing screws and the front module that contains them can be made with mechanically more resistant and tough steels, such as alloys of nickel-chrome-molybdenum. These components are subsequently hardened with a proper thermal treatment.

The transmission groups that put the dosing screws and the agitator in motion, are constituted by never ending screw gearboxes and by three-phase electric motors. The mechanical transmission that moves the dosing screws has a distributor, constituted by a compact box which houses gears and seals, whose function is to split the motion created by a single gearmotor.

The transmission groups that move the dosing screw and the horizontal agitator are constituted by worm type gearboxes and three-phase electric motors. The mechanical transmission which operates the dosing screws has a divider, constituted by a compact box which houses bearings, seal rings and gears. Its function is to split the motion generated by a single gear motor.

The shaft mechanical seals are made with shielded bearings and dust tight rings available in various materials such as NBR, SILICONE, PTFE and VITON. Air flushed sealing groups are also available for the hardest cases.

Atex certified motors are available eventually equipped with a temperature probe and an anti-condensation heating devices when it is requested.

The dosing screws motor can be controlled by a frequency converter , and can be eventually servoventilated. Using these controlling devices it is possible to regulate the rotation speed of the dosing screw in order to obtain the wanted capacity in a predefined minimum and maximum range. The real achievable capacity range depends also on the characteristics of the product to dose. In general it can be covered a range from 1 to 8 between minimum and maximum.

The transmission groups can be equipped with a device for detecting the direction of rotation of the dosing screws and of the horizontal agitator. The device is made of an inductive sensor and a flap keyed on the slow shaft of the gear motor. Everything is protected by an aluminum restraint box with a transparent polycarbonate sight glass.

Are available certified Atex engines, eventually with temperature probe and electrical heater when it is requested.

The gaskets are made in dust-tight rubber , such as SBR or NBR.

The entire range of FLB Side Feeders is constituted by 5 standard sizes that allow to cover a range from a minimum of 60 kg/h to a maximum of 2.500 kg/h.

The side feeder FLB provided is installed on a mobile support with wheels that allows an easy placement on the extrusion line. The support is equipped with handles for the movement and has a properly ballasted base as the side feeder FLB is cantilever mounted to avoid interferences with the extruder line.

It is possible to combine to the side feeders FLB a wide variety of loading hoppers with different capacities.

The hoppers can have a polygonal or truncated conical, symmetrical or skewed shape and their design ensure a correct out flow and complete emptying even with poorly flowing products. The polygonal hoppers have rounded corners to allow a complete and easy cleaning; they can be equipped with wide transparent polycarbonate sight glasses and inspection window as needed. The hoppers truncated conical shaped can have a vertical agitator, which is useful for particularly compact products, that stick to the walls and have to be forced to come down the dosing body. Agitators with different geometric shape are available to chose according to the product characteristics.

The hoppers can be manually or automatically loaded.

The hoppers loaded manually have a completely removable lid or semi-openable with hinges. Inside it there is a safety grid which protects from the risk of contact with moving parts of the doser and prevents the accidental access of foreign matter that could damage the doser.

The hoppers automatically loaded have bolted lids with a round inlet and a vent socket equipped with a bag in polyester filtering fabric sleeve.

As accessories of the hoppers there are level sensors, to detect the presence of product, and pneumatic vibrators or moto vibrators to prevent the formation of bridges. The most used sensors are capacitive types, rotary level sensors, vibrating level switches to choose according to the product characteristics.

The side feeder FLB can be continuously fed by another dosing unit installed above.

Powder dosers series CH,CHW, BH, BHW can be used .

The side feeders FLB can be certified Atex 21/22 and Atex 21/21. 

Electrical control panels can also be supplied including software specifically designed accordingly to the requested functionality.