Now, instead of manually scooping clay from a small bag to fill a small pail, workers scooped from aside a palletized bulk bag wearing face masks to filter out ultrafine particulates. Reaching down into the bag became an ergonomic problem and workers found it difficult to keep the nano-sized particles from escaping into the air and onto the floor. Spillage and dust clouds became standard while keeping the facility clean to FDA requirements now demanded eight workers. “It got everywhere and made quite a mess,” says Ashton Ryan, chief growth officer for Uncle Harry’s. “We had clay on the floor, we had airborne dust, and our people would be covered in it head to toe looking like ghosts. We couldn’t operate like this.”
Ryan began looking for a dust-free way to manage the bentonite clay transfer. “Nobody offered a bag unloader that was truly dust-free, except AFC,” says Ryan, “AFC worked with me to custom-engineer a dust-free, sanitary, automated powder handling solution that has eliminated dust from our workplace.” The AFC design integrates bulk bag unloading with conveying to automatically transfer the clay from the bulk bag directly into the pail in a sealed system. This prevents any dust from escaping into the work environment and supports FDA compliance.
The new powder handling system has eliminated the manual scooping, the dust clouds, housekeeping mess, safety concerns, and costly material waste, and workers no longer need PPE. “Now, our production is in position to keep up with our aggressive sales growth, our employees are much happier to come to work, and the price was very reasonable – we’re really happy with AFC.”
