Extract Virtually All Viscous Materials

Transcription

1 Reduce Waste, Boost Profits Extract Virtually All Viscous Materials from your shipping and transfer totes

2 Extract Virtually All Viscous Materials from Your Shipping & Transfer Totes 2 The difficulty of conveying viscous liquids, such as lotions, creams, gels and slurries, presents a series of challenges in the manufacturing environment. Millions of dollars are lost annually in the cosmetic, chemical, food and personal care industries due to scrapped product, which simply can t be extracted from disposable form-fit liquid liners. The advent of the Xtrakt System from ILC Dover provides an innovative solution. It has been designed specifically to mitigate wasted product, improve operating efficiencies and reduce environmental impact, while simultaneously promoting operator safety. Here s how it works. Handling viscous liquids in any manufacturing industry is extremely challenging. Current processing of these viscous liquids involves dispensing the end product into a liner in a rigid intermediate bulk container (IBC), commonly known as a form-fit liquid liner. These liners are used to provide a high level of cleanliness and robust containment to protect the end product, while offering disposability at the end of dispensing. With typical nominal capacities of 315 US gallons, these form-fit liners are placed into rigid-walled intermediate bulk containers (IBCs), and filled with the liquid end product, which is then transported to individual stations for dispensing and final packaging. During the dispensing process, a positive displacement pump (diaphragm or piston) is typically deployed to convey the material from the IBC s form-fit liner to some form of product packaging machine for incremental dispensing of the liquid into tubes, jars, pouches, cans, tubs or pails. Depending on the viscosity and flow characteristics of the material, residual product at the end of liner pumping frequently exceeds 10 kg and can range in excess of 40 kg, even with the use of what has been, until now, state-of-the-art, air-assist liquid liner systems. This residual remains despite the frequent steps often taken by the operators to manually manipulate the form-fit liners (tugging, twisting, lifting) or even manually tilt the IBC to allow for increased gravity flow. This puts the workers at risk for injury, and typically allows only fractional increases in total material extracted. The clear alternative ILC Dover engineers recognized this problem, and set about to design a system specifically to overcome the obstacles involved in handling high-viscosity materials. By combining their knowledge of flexible containment systems with their innovative technical approach to problem-solving, they were able to develop a system that can extract the contents of Pneumatically driven Xtrakt unit ready for activation to wring content from an ILC Dover 300 gallon dual-wall liner in a standard shipping tote. a 315-gallon tote to a final residual of less than 2 kg of product, every time. Based on estimated product values ranging from $5 to $15/kg, the Xtrakt system would save these customers from $40 to $570 per liner-dispensing-cycle. The system operates hands-free, requires no manipulation of the tote or liner by the operator and works on materials with a viscosity up to 400,000 centipoise. Designed to reduce waste and increase profitability, the system extracts material so efficiently, it will quickly pay for itself via operating savings

3 Extract Virtually All Viscous Materials from Your Shipping & Transfer Totes 3 How the system works... First, the Xtrakt drive unit is installed onto the neck of the specially configured ILC Dover dual-wall liner (see photo, previous page) and connected to normal plant air, which is used to power the drive unit and all system control functions. At this point, the system is ready for operation. The Xtrakt deployment cart houses all necessary system components, and is easily portable, for maximum flexibility. from valuable product recovery, while it simultaneously reduces wastehandling costs and increases worker productivity. Xtrakt system components The Xtrakt System drive unit s ergonomic design makes it easy for a single operator to handle. The specially designed ILC Dover flexible liner has double-wall strength and texturing tailored to work with the Xtrakt drive unit. The Xtrakt system consists of three major components, the patent-pending dual-wall liners designed specifically for wringing of high- viscosity liquids; the drive unit that physically wrings the content from the dual-wall liner; and the deployment cart, which houses the drive unit and pneumatic control system. In most installations, the operator uses the plant s existing positive- displacement diaphragm or piston pump to empty as much of the container s volume as practical typically two-thirds of the IBC s contents, depending on initial volume, viscosity and the product s level of surface adhesion to the liner. When the pump has reached the target extraction level, the Xtrakt system is activated with the simple push of a button, as the pump continues to operate. As the drive unit is activated, it tensions the dual-wall liner and begins to crawl down the bag, continuing to present liquid to the pump to support full discharge. Simply pressing the Start button initiates hands-free operation of the Xtrakt drive unit. When the Xtrakt drive unit reaches the bottom of the bag, it stops automatically, usually leaving less than 2 kg of residual material.

4 Extract Virtually All Viscous Materials from Your Shipping & Transfer Totes 4 Once initiated, the Xtrakt drive unit operates automatically, with no need for operator intervention first tensioning the bag and then crawling along the length of the bag, squeezing all remaining high-viscosity material from the bag s interior toward the discharge port. When the dual-wall liner is empty, the drive unit stops automatically. The operator then disconnects the Xtrakt drive unit from the bag and returns it to its place on the deployment cart, ready for the next tote. The Xtrakt system is designed for use with bottom-discharge totes. Economics favor the Xtrakt system Compared to even the best airassisted discharge systems, the Xtrakt system offers substantial cost savings and a fast return on investment because the Xtrakt system reduces: 1. Residual product loss 2. Labor associated with attempted recovery of residual 3. Disposal costs for unrecovered residual product Single-use dual-wall liner plus residual product content weighs just over 1.5 kg. The Xtrakt system s design and hands-off operation during discharge also offer the potential to substantially lower operator lost time and worker s compensation claims. With all of these advantages, the Xtrakt system can significantly increase operational profitability for any firm conveying viscous liquids. To request an evaluation and economic analysis of your particular application and costs, call us at or visit our website at

5 ABOUT ILC DOVER Founded in 1947, ILC Dover specializes in products and technologies that provide unparalleled protection for people and equipment in hostile environments. We have been the sole designer and manufacturer of NASA spacesuits since manned Apollo missions began in And we re creating what s next for future missions to Mars. We are also leveraging these competencies in materials, soft goods and film-based solutions to protect humans against infectious or deadly diseases and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contamination. In the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries, we provide powder transfer packaging, liners and containment systems, FDA-compliant films, equipment enclosures, and PAPRs to protect workers against active pharmacological agents. And in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries, we provide a range of high- quality liners for bulk liquid and dry transport, as well as extraction systems for high- viscosity materials that improve worker safety, productivity and profitability. Additionally, we are world leaders in engineered inflatable and lighter-than-air products for use by the military and homeland security, plus products for flood, smoke and fire protection, and infrastructure security. ILC Dover s design engineers can also partner with you to custom-create a product or technology for your precise application or need. Let us create what s next for you. Learn more about us at One Moonwalker Road Frederica, DE USA customer_service@ilcdover.com MKT-0202