Flexicon single-trip bulk bag unloader

Flexicon has released a single-trip bulk bag unloader that allows rapid, low-cost discharging in low headroom areas, and conveying of the material at any angle to downstream processing, storage or packaging equipment.

The unloader relies on the user’s forklift or plant hoist to lower single-use bulk bags onto a four-bladed bag piercing knife that cuts the bag bottom from seam to seam, promoting complete discharge without the use of flow promotion devices otherwise needed to move material through narrow bag spouts.

The single-trip unloader relies on the bag bottom to self-seal against a thick gasket affixed to the rim of the hopper and to discharge through a wide diameter hole in the centre of the gasket, eliminating the cost and additional headroom required for bag spout interfaces used on conventional unloaders of re-usable bags. An optional dust plenum, consisting of a hollow hopper rim with interior slots and exterior port vented to a plant dust collection system, is offered as a secondary dust containment measure.

Compared with re-usable bags, many of which are discarded after one use, single-use bags can be less costly to purchase and reduce the amount of material to be discarded or recycled.

The hopper charges the intake adapter of an integral flexible screw conveyor that handles free- and non-free-flowing bulk materials ranging from large pellets to submicron powders.