Super Air Amplifier Blows Plastic Scrap Through Guillotine Granulator

The customer manufactures granulators and special in-feed accessories to assist granulators in the task of re-grinding un-used plastic parts. In this application, the customer has some long, thin "runners" that need to be granulated for re-processing. The arrangement is such that a robot deposits the 63" long runners onto an in-feed conveyor equipped with a guillotine chopper at the end. The guillotine chopper sizes the runners and included sprue so that they feed into the granulator properly. Problem is when the last 5 to 7 inches of the runner runs across a bit of dead area between end of conveyor and chopper blade and no movement into the guillotine occurs. This last bit of material is troublesome because it can jam up at the output of the conveyor which causes problems for the guillotine to work properly as well as for proper feeding of the next set of runners. This also presents a danger to personnel who must clear the jammed material. The customer needs to provide a high-velocity airflow to eject the last bit of runner material through the guillotine area to allow for travel on through to the granulator. Two pieces of Model 120021 1-1/4" (32mm) Super Air Amplifier were installed at the inlet of the guillotine processor to insure proper travel of the left over pieces of runner on through. The Air Amplifiers were set up with a Model 9055 EFC Electronic Flow Control to provide timed blasts of air to assist at only the needed times. The result is that the customer is left with a smoothly operating system that can now run continuously without constant attention from an operator.