Problem vs. Solution summary
Problem: Dry solids cake and bridge inside transition valves until the line plugs.
Solution: An industrial dome breaker disrupts accretion at the valve seat so flow continues without manual cleaning.
Problem: Hygroscopic chemicals pull moisture from the air and harden mid-process.
Solution: A valve for sticky materials shears the crust as it forms, independent of ambient humidity.
Problem: Abrasive slurries deposit, harden, and accelerate wear.
Solution: A wear-tolerant dome breaker keeps the seating surface clear under abrasive duty.
Problem: Reformulation, flow agents, and powder testing add cost and quality risk.
Solution: Material crusting solutions applied mechanically leave your formulation untouched.
Problem: Replacing valve assets is expensive.
Solution: The Crust-Breaker dome retrofits to existing Roto-Disc valves.
Industrial Dome Breaker: Material Crusting Solutions for Sticky, Crusting & Caking Materials
You’ve seen this problem before. As your dry solids move from one area of your production line to another, your transitions valve develops plugs over time that hinder the flow. Eventually, it shuts down your line for several minutes while your staff cleans the valve.
Crusting, caking, and clumping can come from many sources. Yet there aren’t easy ways to solve the problem. Until now.
Find out how our crust break flat-top dome solves these types of problems.
Traditional Methods to Prevent Powder Caking in Bulk Solids
You’ve already explored several methods to prevent caking in bulk solids.
- Use a product that’s less fine.
- Reduce moisture content.
- Remove the ingredient that is the major caking contributor.
- Avoid the temperatures or humidity that causes caking.
- Reduce the consolidation load.
- Add a flow agent.
All of these traditional methods can add costs, research time, and even price to your end product. Instead of changing your products, which can alter the quality, you can add a mechanical crust break dome to your valve assembly.
1. Reducing Moisture
Reducing the moisture of your solids is the number one way to prevent caking and crusting. That usually means reducing the storage time of your ingredients. Otherwise, your teams will have to break up the solids before you even move them down the line.
Even if you do this, the temperature or pressure of your conveying system might cause caking. Rather than reduce moisture, your teams can use a valve specifically designed to eliminate caking, crusting, and clumping in the middle of your process.
2. Powder Testing
Powder testing allows you to measure flowability while simulating process conditions. Powder testing takes time, effort, and precision. But instead of testing powders every time you need to change these types of ingredients, remove the need for this step altogether with a mechanical solution.
3. Changing the Composition of Your Product
Once you add or take away an ingredient or change the storage conditions for your raw materials, you have to perform testing, more testing, and testing again until you get it right. You might have the best experts in your industry who know how changing something in your materials should work. But you never really know until you produce a test batch. Once your test batch works, it’s time to test under real-world conditions along your line. Then you have confidence it will work, but you still might see caking.
Changing the composition of a product takes even more time and effort than powder testing. And it can alter the quality of your end product, which can cause difficulties with your vendors and customers on both sides of the supply chain.
Extreme Process Specs: Hygroscopic Chemicals and Abrasive Slurries
The same accretion physics that plug a simple powder line get worse at the edges of the process envelope, where a purpose-built industrial dome breaker proves its value as a material crusting solution.
Hygroscopic chemicals. Materials that actively draw moisture from the surrounding air such as many salts, fertilizers, detergents, and specialty chemicals, will harden inside a valve no matter how dry they were upstream. You can’t dehumidify your way out of a material that wants water. A dome breaker treats the symptom mechanically, shearing the crust as it forms so the valve keeps cycling regardless of ambient conditions.
Abrasive slurries. High-solids and abrasive slurries punish equipment two ways at once: they deposit and harden against surfaces, and they grind away at anything they contact. A dome breaker built for this duty keeps the seating surface clear of build-up while withstanding the abrasive load, delivering flow assurance and long service life at the same time.As a valve for sticky materials, it holds up where standard equipment fails.
Prevent Clumping, Caking & Crusting Mechanically
Roto-Disc, Inc., is a world leader in solids handling valves for dry material handling processes. Our crust breaker dome can be retrofitted to existing Roto-Disc valves, alleviating crusting, caking, and clumping for dry solids.
Contact Roto-Disc today to learn more about how we can help your company improve its processes and achieve optimal results for crust breaking.
FAQ's
A mechanical device added to a solids-handling valve assembly that disrupts crusting, caking, and clumping at the valve seat, keeping dry material flowing without manual cleaning or line stoppages.
Yes. Because it works mechanically at the point of build-up, it keeps flow consistent even with materials that absorb ambient moisture and harden regardless of upstream drying.
A dome breaker specified for abrasive duty keeps the seating surface clear of hardened deposits while tolerating the abrasive load, supporting both flow assurance and longer service life.
Yes. The Roto-Disc Crust-Breaker dome can be retrofitted to existing Roto-Disc valves, so you don’t have to replace installed equipment.
Reformulation, flow agents, and repeated powder testing add cost and time and can alter product quality. A mechanical dome breaker leaves the formulation untouched while solving the flow problem in line.