Dog Biscuit Optical Sorter Line System

The Task

One of the UK’s fastest growing pet foods producers and long standing Gough customer was making plans to install a new production line, and required an elevating and conveying system.

With increasing demand for high quality pet food, particularly from overseas, the company wanted to introduce an optical sorting line that would visually inspect each dog biscuit and reject any defect products, typically misshapen or burnt pieces.

Due to the company’s rapid growth production space was limited, and the optical sorter required product be fed at a height of 3 metres. This meant a vertical product elevation system was required. As part of the scheme the company also wanted broken biscuits and fine, dusty particles to be sieved off the final product ready for packaging.

The Solution

The process would involve product being discharged from a bin, fed and elevated into the optical sorter, then product being fed and elevated again into a collection bin for transport to the packaging facility.

The completed system included a bin discharging stillage, two vibratory feeders, and two Swinglink® Bucket Elevators.

Bins filled with un-sorted product were positioned on the bin discharging stillage. Product from the bins emptied into a vibratory feeder below. This feeder included a mesh screen section which sieved away any broken biscuits and fine particles to reduce the demand on the optical sorter and improve the sorting results. The feeder gave an even flow of product into the bucket elevator that conveyed the biscuits up into the optical sorter. After the sorting process the good product discharged down into a second vibratory feeder which fed into a second bucket elevator, elevating product into a collection bin.

The Result

With the system installed the company is now able to process up to 7 tonnes per hour of dog biscuits ensuring that production is able to keep up with the high volume, high quality demands of the overseas markets.