Polimak Smart Rotary Feeder

Manufacturing and process industries including food, agriculture, cement, chemicals and plastics greatly depend on rotary feeders to handle various flowing bulk solids. Rotary feeders play an essential role in regulating the flow of bulk solids, a process that requires uninterrupted operations. Unfortunately, various problems related to the operation of rotary feeders may arise. Some of these problems may include the following rotor shaft misalignment causing abnormal vibrations, bearing damage due to overheating, seal degradation as a result of air purge malfunctions, noisy operations caused by rotor expansion brought on by higher temperatures of bulk solids than anticipated, and jamming due to trapped bulk materials resulting in shuddering of the feeder, eventually causing the drive chain to hop or affecting the rotor speed. In addition, inadequate material throughput as a result of excessive air leakage at the inlet and outlet is also a common problem related to these devices. These problems can yield severe consequences on the production output and longevity of machinery, including unplanned downtime costs, increased maintenance fees, reduced performance and shortened equipment lifespan.

With industry 4.0 improving operational efficiencies through automation and other key Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, Polimak engineers smart rotary feeders that assist manufacturing and process industries reduce equipment unplanned downtime and improve their overall production line performance. Polimak combines process industry know-how with its expertise in software technology to engineer quality smart rotary feeders. Our rotary feeder (typically used in processing lines under a head of bulk materials and efficiently regulates material flow between two devices) has our IoT solution platform – Politrace, that combines process conditioning, machine health and inventory monitoring, and computerized maintenance management technologies integrated into it. A sensor system is installed onto the feeder. The sensor system can measure a variety of operational unit parameters like temperature and vibration of the feeder’s body, rotor speed, power consumption, air pressure at inlet and outlet ports, bearing temperature, air pressure at air purges, and safety protector cover detection as the feeder operates. The sensors can collect real-time data on the performance and condition of the rotary feeder. This provides early warning of potential rotary feeder problems, thus enabling personnel to take the necessary action before the actual breakdown happens. Polimak smart rotary feeder offers the following benefits:

  • Reduced machine unplanned downtime.
  • Adequate throughput of bulk solids.
  • Decreased costs.
  • Improved performance of production line.
  • Real-time data monitoring.
  • Predictive maintenance.
  • Notifications alert for any performance anomaly.

The compatibility of our Internet of Things (IoT) solution is not only limited to rotary feeders, it can also be fully integrated into different operating machines throughout processing lines. The collaboration of manufacturing machines with our Internet of Things solution creates machines that communicate data in real time.