Heavy Duty Tri-Braze™ Construction Screw Feeder for Metering Perlite Fines

Plant Name and Location

Nestle Purina PetCare
Bloomfield, MO

General Description

Nestle Purina is one of the world’s largest pet products companies devoted to pet nutrition and the welfare of animals. As one of their many products, Nestle Purina manufactures pet litter for both dogs and cats. Pet litter is an absorbent and consists of many different ingredients. One of the key ingredients is expanded perlite. Expanded perlite is very light and free-flowing, but is also very abrasive. Special care is required when designing equipment for this type of product. For this portion of the project, Nestle Purina required a new screw feeder to accurately meter expanded perlite from a storage hopper to feed the downstream processing equipment. KWS worked with Nestle Purina and a consulting engineering firm to develop an excellent solution for their pet litter manufacturing process.

Design Parameters

Product Type: Expanded Perlite
Material Density: 5 Lbs. per Cubic Foot
Capacity: 720 Cubic Feet per Hour
Duty: 24 Hours per Day

KWS worked with a consulting engineer to optimize the screw feeder design.

KWS Advantages

Nestle Purina contacted Tech Equipment Sales, KWS’s local manufacturer’s representative at the beginning of the project to discuss possible solutions. They were looking for an experienced screw conveyor manufacturer to build a very heavy-duty screw feeder system with rapid delivery. KWS was the immediate answer. The Customer had recently developed a new light weight, super-absorbent cat litter product and needed a heavy duty, long lasting screw feeder to meter expanded perlite from a storage hopper for their plant expansion. KWS selected troughs and screw flights made from Tri-Braze™, which is a special high hardness alloy steel. Tri-Braze™ is extremely durable due to the fact that it is hardened throughout the thickness of the metal; other abrasion-resistant steels are just hardened on surface layers. KWS had extensive experience designing for and manufacturing with this special material that the Customer required.

Special Features

Engineers at KWS worked with the consulting engineering firm to optimize the screw feeder design. The engineering firm provided basic layout information for the KWS engineering team to follow. During the engineering phase both engineering teams worked together seamlessly to improve upon the screw feeder design. KWS designers kept all of the Customer’s specific requirements in mind; the approval drawing phase only required a small support relocation. Tri-Braze™ material cannot be formed at a 90-degree angle and can be difficult to weld. KWS engineers made sure the screw feeder design included weld-together construction to accommodate for the fabrication requirements of the Tri-Braze™ material. KWS welders are tested and certified to weld Tri-Braze™ material. The screw feeder also had a few special features such as inspection ports and dust collection vents that KWS engineered into the design perfectly.