Weigh Belt Feeder (Food Processing)

Weigh belt feeders offer a type of gravimetric feeding that utilizes a weigh module mounted below a moving belt. Material moves onto the belt forming a roughly consistent bed. As the bed of material passes over the weighing section, belt speed is continuously adjusted based on the sensed weight to result in a controlled discharge. The mass flow rate equals belt speed times the material weight. Weigh belt feeders are heavily used in food processing for continuous feeding, batching or metering. They are the ideal feeder selection for high feed rates, handling of fragile materials that might be damaged by a screw feeder and for fitting into compact spaces. Typical applications for weigh belt feeders in food processing include batching of nuts, raisins and other ingredients for snack mixes; continuous feeding of multiple ingredients into downstream equipment; as a meter-- totalizing (rather than controlling) the wild flow of material from a silo.