Bulk bag conditioners have become increasingly popular over the past few years.  However, there is still much confusion on the part of bulk bag users regarding what conditioners do and when they should be used.

Bulk Bag Conditioners - How They Work

There are many specific designs on the market, but they all perform the same function: breaking up solidified ingredient in bulk bags.

Some designs use multiple squeezing attachments on 2 or more sides.  Others (like the Control and Metering Bag Squeezer) use only two squeezing poles.  Most are hydraulically driven, but there are a few that rely on air pressure to provide the squeezing force.

Bulk Bag Conditioning Automation

Most bulk bag conditioners are specifically designed to have one bulk bag placed manually in the conditioner and then manually removed.  However, some designs (at least one!) can be configured in an automated system that allows bulk bags to be staged and fed into and removed from the squeezer automatically.  This can dramatically reduce the amount of time required to squeezer bulk bags and significantly increase productivity.

Bulk Bag Conditioners - When To Use Them

Bulk bag conditioners are designed to break up ingredient that has 'set' in a bulk bag.  This situation results in what is essentially a solid block of ingredient that must be broken up for it to flow through the bulk bag's outlet spout.  There are some situations where the ingredient has not set into one block, but instead has several very large pieces that have solidified.

Bulk bag conditioners are NOT designed to break up softball or football or basketball sized chunks of ingredient.  In that case, a lump breaker is required to break up the lumps.

There is a surprisingly high number of dry bulk solid ingredients that will 'set up' (solidify) when stored in a container.  This can cause significant problems when the container is emptied... the problem being that if the ingredient has solidified enough it simply won't flow!

In the case of bulk bags filled with solidified ingredient, we have encountered many plants who have devised their own solutions to this problem:

• Hitting the bulk bag with hand held solid objects (pipes, etc.)
• Bouncing the bag on the floor with a forklift
• Driving the bag into a wall or column with a forklift

As you can imagine these so-called solutions are usually somewhat less than effective and are most certainly sub-optimal - most importantly they are unsafe.

What to do?

Pre-condition the bulk bag by using a device such as the Bag Squeezer.  Its name nicely describes its function!

By safely breaking up the ingredient prior to attempting to discharge it, productivity will be improved, dusting will be minimized and safety will be dramatically enhanced.