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42 / April 2021 powderbulk.com CASE HISTORY ADVERTISEMENT FLEXICON EAST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – Bakery On Main, a commercial bakery specializing in gluten-free foods, needed to increase capacity significantly. Michael Smulders, owner, says, "We were operating at 100 per- cent of capacity. Our bulk handling equipment, which consisted largely of inclined conveyor belts, was ineffi- cient and very labor intensive. It was also an open sys- tem, so ingredients were exposed to the atmosphere." Smulders built a new facility with an integrated bulk handling system designed specifically for gluten-free baked goods. To handle the overall design he commis- sioned an independent engineering firm, which worked closely with the Project Engineering Division of Flexi- con Corporation (www.flexicon.com), Bethlehem, PA, to create a fully integrated bulk handling system based on the company's FLEXI-DISC ® Tubular Cable Conveyor (TCC) system. Inside the TCC system, low-friction polymer discs attached to a stainless steel cable gently slide bulk mate- rials through smooth stainless steel tubing. Because of its gentle conveying action and dust-tight operation, the TCC system is ideally suited for transfer of fragile, contamination- sensitive food products. The tubing can be routed horizontally, vertically or at any angle. The discs and cable are driven by a rotating wheel at one end of the circuit, and maintained under tension by a wheel at the other end. Because granola and oatmeal each require a different production process, the company operates two separate bulk handling systems from Flexicon within the new 110,000 sq ft (10,200 sq m) building. The granola handling system includes two FLEXI- DISC TCC circuits, a TIP-TITE ® Box Dump Station, a TWIN-CENTERPOST ™ Bulk Bag Filler and two BULK- OUT ® Bulk Bag Dischargers. Major granola ingredients are discharged from an extruder into the Bulk Bag Filler equipped with an inflatable seal and a high level sensor and indicator. Palletized bags are then transported by forklift to a Dual Bulk Bag Discharger System which consists of two identical BULK-OUT ® BFC Series Dischargers, each with a cantilevered I-beam, electric hoist and trolley for load- ing and unloading bulk bags. From each Bulk Bag Discharger, major granola ingredi- ents flow onto a vibratory feeder and through an adjust- able weir gate into a non-metered inlet adapter on a 6 in. (150 mm) diameter, 102 ft (30.6 m) long Tubular Cable Con- veyor having one vertical and two horizontal sections. Both dischargers rest on load cells that measure weight loss and signal the vibratory feeders to stop when a pre-programmed weight has been transferred from the discharger to a mixer purchased separately by Bakery On Main. Minor ingredients are manually deposited into a small hopper due to the need for higher accuracy, and introduced to the TCC through a metered inlet adapter. The combined ingredients are then discharged from the TCC through a full flow inline discharge adapter and fed into the mixer. Once blended, the ingredients are fed into an oven, which deposits baked material onto a moving conveyor belt. Baked granola then discharges into the surge hop- per of a vibratory feeder that delivers the material into a non-metered inlet adapter of a 4 in. (100 mm) diameter, 173 ft (52 m) long TCC. Finished product dis- charges through inline tubular discharge valves into two packaging machines equipped with level sensors that signal a PLC to maintain surge hopper fill levels by start- ing and stopping the con- veyor. Any excess granola is discharged through the system's drive wheel dis- charge adapter into open boxes, which are trans- ported by fork truck to a Flexicon TIP-TITE ® Box Dumper positioned at the intake end of the TCC. Granola tubular cable conveyor circuit: Minor ingredients are manually added through hopper at right while major ingredients are metered from two bulk bag dischargers into the tubular conveyor that feeds the mixer (background). Transparent section of TCC circuit allows operators to observe system performance and fill level of "pockets." LARGE SCALE BULK HANDLING PROJECT BOOSTS GLUTEN-FREE FOOD PRODUCTION AT BAKERY ON MAIN