How can we help you leap ahead of your performance curve?

Thank you for visiting www.feederaccuracy.com, a special K-Tron Online page that features our most recent technical paper on feeding technology. Below you will find a brief summary of the article.  You can also register to download a PDF of the complete eight-page document.

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1. High-Resolution Digital Weighing
High feeding accuracy begins with precise, high-resolution weighing. K-Tron pioneered digital vibrating wire weighing technology with the introduction of its two-wire DMT load cell. Today, K-Tron's single-wire Smart Force Transducer (SFT) represents more than 25 years of evolution and intense development to provide economical, drift-free 1:1,000,000 weighing resolution.

2. Fast Weighing and Control
Many of today's demanding processes require high feeding accuracy over very brief timescales, often just a few seconds. K-Tron's advanced weighing and loss-in-weight control dynamics enable up to 12 weighments and associated control adjustments to be performed every second, optimizing instantaneous feeding performance in these critical applications.

3. Vibration Immune Weighing
Achieving high gravimetric feeding performance on the process line requires discriminating between weight data and the contaminating effects of inertial forces induced from ambient vibration and shock. K-Tron's exclusive dynamic digital filtering algorithm continuously identifies and extracts spurious inertial components from the weight measurement, even in severe process environments.

4. No Weigh Belt Re-Taring
K-Tron's exclusive Continuous Auto-Tare feature eliminates out-of-tare feed rate errors and tedious, periodic weigh belt feeder recalibration. A second SFT weight sensor, positioned upstream of the material bed, continuously senses empty belt weight. The controller then subtracts indexed belt weight from the load measurement, assuring moment-to-moment accuracy even with sticky materials.

5. Smoother Discharge
Single screw loss-in-weight feeders, operating at low rates, often produce an unsteady discharge within one revolution of the screw, resulting in mass flow pulsation. K-Tron's exclusive Screw Speed Modulation algorithm records the pulsation and adjusts screw speed to compensate for the effect, minimizing mass flow variability.

6. Optimized Feeder Refill
During loss-in-weight hopper refill, sensed weight is not useful to control feed rate. While others simply freeze screw speed until refill is complete, K-Tron's exclusive Smart Refill Technology memorizes recent gravimetric performance at various hopper weights and varies screw speed to compensate for changes in material density during refill. This maintains accurate performance and enables a smoother transition to full gravimetric control.

7. Advanced Vibratory Feeding
Where uniform discharge is critical, especially at very low rates, K-Tron's patented 3-loop loss-in-weight vibratory feeders provide the best solution. One control loop maintains tray resonance, a second loop varies amplitude to control rate, and a third loop reflects the mechanical dynamics associated with the unique combination of material and feeder to trim output to the highest attainable accuracy.

8. The Most Material Handling Solutions
Over the course of thirty-five years of feeding more than 7,000 process materials worldwide, K-Tron has developed the widest array of feeding and material handling and conditioning solutions available. Today, with practical innovations such as the PowerSphere feed bowl for superior screw fill, K-Tron continues to advance the material handling state-of-the-art.

9. Single Source Systems Solutions
Individual feeder accuracy is only part of the performance equation.  The entire material handling system must work together to achieve a quality end product. K-Tron offers seamless feeder refill by integrating Hurricane vacuum loaders into SmartConnex feeder controls. SmartConnex offers easy communication to most plant PLCs via SmartLink boards offered that plug into a feeder's Smart Control Module (SCM). In addition, the K-Tron Systems Engineering Group can supply the complete material handling system.