Project background:
EW Nutrition is a global animal nutrition company that provides animal feed factories and self-producing farmers with comprehensive customer solutions for animal intestinal health management, antibiotic reduction, young animal nutrition, toxin risk management, etc. In 2018, to expand their business in China and provide products to Southeast Asian countries, EW reached us and planned to invest a factory for animal feeding in Nantong, China.
At the beginning EW found us only for single mixer project. After considering with their needs and ideas from our engineers, they trust S&L Group with the turnkey project including designing, fabrication, installation, control and commissioning of the entire production line. Three or four kinds of different formulas will be weighed, metered and transported to the mixer, and then packed after mixing. In addition, there will be liquid spraying for some products during mixing process. After multiple discussions and program revisions, the final design process is worked out as follows:
- Step 1: Preparation of raw materials:
Big bags of raw materials are lifted to the top platform through elevator, then raw material will be loaded to the weighing silo manually. The capacity of the silo can meet half a day of the production needs.
- Step 2: Material weighing, measuring and conveying
Each silo is designed with a weighing sensor, and the conveyed materials can be measured by weighing, and then the materials are conveyed into the mixer through a screw conveyor which can be frequency-conversion speed-regulated
- Step 3: Feeding small materials:
After feeding the main materials, the small materials are pre-weighed and directly loaded into the mixer manually. Click the control button to confirm, mixer will start the mixing process.
- Step 4: Mixing process:
When the mixing is completed, the material will be discharged automatically to the finished product silo.
- Step 5 Packaging:
Packages after mixing are 25kg aluminum foil bags and woven bags, heat-sealed with aluminum foil. There will be some air generated because of small bulk density of material. Finally the customer selected an aluminum foil bag with a breathing valve. First empty the air and then sew the woven bag.
The production line is semi-automated. In addition to the preparation of raw materials and product packaging, the process is controlled by PLC automation, and only 2 workers are required for the designed production line, which greatly reduces the labor costs.
Installation, commissioning and production:
Finally it took 60 days to complete the installation of all mechanical and electrical equipment. After a week of testing with materials, the commissioning of entire line was completed. Each feeding port was designed with a dust removing system and air guns was equipped at each floor for daily cleaning. During installation process, our engineers have overcome various difficulties in order to make it more convenient for operation and meet customer's requirements. So far the production line has been used for 3 years, it turned out the customers are very satisfied with our products. Recently, EW Nutrition acquired feeding and pigment business of Novus, and they are going to add new production lines in Nantong to meet the needs of the Chinese market and expand more product businesses in the future.