Using an ARO Diaphragm Pump for PowdersWe have a customer who does custom chemical mixing for pesticide and herbicide manufacturers. The additives used to produce these products come in both powder and liquid form. Usually the ingredients are mixed with water in large mixing tanks. The product is then moved to a smaller tank that is used as a day tank in filling the customer’s containers. They are usually one gallon and five gallon plastic bottles.
The particular product that was causing problems being mixed had a component that was very light and fluffy. They had tried different methods of moving the ingredient to the mix tank but had problems with dusting and the product would actually foam or bubble out of the top of the mix tank. This was especially true with gravity feed.
The project engineer at the facility relayed these problems to me and I suggested that they try an ARO AOD powder pump. These pumps use regulated aeration ports to keep the product fluidized. The pump also had the optional suction probe which is perfect for moving product from super sacks.
ARO offered a test program for these to insure that the pump will move the product. Our customer found that the material was easily pumped once the proper pump adjustments were made. Since the pump discharge is into a hose it was easy for them to pipe it into the top of the tank. This eliminated their dusting problem and the foaming problem with the gravity fill.
We did these trials several months ago and I recently checked with the customer and they are very happy with the pump.
