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Not All Intermediate Bulk Containers (Ibcs) Are Created Equal

Not All Intermediate Bulk Containers (Ibcs) Are Created Equal - Custom Powder Systems
28 Oct 2019  |
The plumbing in your house. The road under your car. The intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) you use in your process.

All important. All easily overlooked.

Pipes, highways, and IBCs have been around for a long time doing crucial jobs, and fortunately, somebody else thinks long and hard about them. And just like pipes and roads, using “any old IBC” can prevent an unseen risk.

“Recently a pharma company bought some IBCs from a low-end supplier and when they got them there, the side of the of the IBC was a bunch of pieces and scabbed in,” according to Bob Luebbe, Senior VP of Sales at Custom Powder. Instead of being neat and tight, the IBC was like cobbling together small squares of drywall.

Sure, it’s a wall…but not a very good wall.

Plumbers, city planners, and IBC manufacturers like us also ask an important question: How are you using this? We approach this like a tailor making a suit. We help you figure out the right size, what to consider depending on the product, and how our IBCs can stay flexible for future projects.

“We don’t just say, ‘Hey here’s a few standard sizes we oer…’ We make them custom fit to whatever size they’re going to need,” said Luebbe. We understand that this is an important part of your process that is typically feeding a critical, and expensive, machine. “If we’re using a compression sleeve on a 10-inch diameter valve and one valve compresses the gap all the way and the other one doesn’t…you’re gonna be losing product.”

We don’t want that to happen any more than you do.

The IBC is often thought of last in the process, but it’s really the workhorse of your operation. Luebbe reminds us that “whether it’s filling, blending, lifting, or discharging… The IBC is the thing that’s getting moved around the most and takes the biggest beating.”

That kind of thinking is where our niche is.

We don’t just understand IBCs, we understand your process. We’re thinking about the width of your hallways, the height of your doors, and the product going into (and out of ) your IBCs. We’ve even thought long and hard about the best place for the placard so every employee can clearly see what’s in the IBC. We are going into details most companies have forgotten about to make this as easy as possible for you.

Our hopper design angles go from 30 to 70 degrees, undergo drop, vibration, lifting, and pressure tests. They meet cGMP and UN codes, and we know dozens of ways to customize to fit your unique operation.

Many things have changed since the last time you purchased a IBC:

  • You can get more than 20 channels on TV
  • Phones are no longer plugged into walls
  • And IBCs now have better valves and even better finishing

We know you have many things to think of, and IBCs might not be high on the list…but the good news is it’s always high on our list. We’re thinking way ahead of the things you might not know could be a challenge, and we’d love to have the opportunity to make this easy for you.

We also know you’re going to shop around. Please do. Just remember:

Not all IBCs are created equal.

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Custom Powder Systems is a leading provider of systems to transport, contain, blend and process dry materials. We custom design, fabricate,automate and test equipment and provide maintenance services for pharmaceutical, bio-pharmaceutical, food, nutritional supplement and...

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