Industrial Gravimetric Feeders (Food Processing)

A gravimetric feeder weighs the material to be fed into the food manufacturing process at a constant weight per unit of time, producing precise feeding with accuracies of 0.25 to 1%. Capturing the weight enables monitoring and control of the process with a closed feedback loop to assure the high accuracy, even with materials of varying bulk density. Gravimetric feeding is more expensive than volumetric feeding; however, the savings in ingredient usage can quickly offset this cost. The two most common types of gravimetric feeders are loss-in-weight feeders, where the entire feeder and material being discharged are weighed to detect the loss in weight of the material, and weigh belt feeders, where a moving belt is mounted over a weighing module and the weight of the material on the belt x belt speed determines the feed rate. Gravimetric feeders can be used in both batch and continuous processes in the manufacture of processed foods.