Increasing the dosing accuracy of a screw dosing device by inline measurement of the product density

Fine‐powdered bulk materials exhibit high compressibility even under low pressure. The dosing error in volumetric dosing devices increases fundamentally with increasing product compressibility. In order to increase the dosing accuracy of a volumetric dosing of powdered bulk solids, the dosing process must be adapted to the product parameters. The most important parameter is the time‐variable product density. With a pure volumetric dosage, it has a direct influence on the actually filled product quantity. Attempts are often made to obtain feedback by means of a scale in order to continuously adjust the volume. However, this is often associated with a delay. In this article, the approach is to measure the product mass flow directly by means of a microwave sensor and to regulate it to a predetermined mass flow. The experimental investigations were carried out with a screw dosing device FVS 3111. Two scenarios were tested: on the one hand, the integration of the sensor directly at the product delivery point, whereby the difference of the average value of the dosed quantity to the target weight could be improved with the sample product coffee; on the other, the sensor was integrated directly at the beginning of the screw and the remaining product flow was simulated. A reduction of the standard deviation compared with the conventional control could also be achieved, but here, the difference between the average of the dosed quantity and the nominal quantity is greater. The cause is presumed to be the too generalized assumption of product behaviour in the case of vertical conveying by means of a screw. In summary, the dosing accuracy of a screw dosing device could be increased by measuring and regulating the mass flow and thus the costs of a manufactured packaging could be reduced. Fluctuations in the metered quantity occur when filling packages with fine‐powdered bulk goods. The use of the mass flow (arrows) control can save 0.55 g of coffee per dosage and still reduce the dosing time by around 37%—this saves the manufacturer a lot of money.