To achieve highest throughput potential for horizontal auger fillers, here are 4 main factors to understand about the process.

1. 1. HORIZONTAL FEED SCREW
      By far, one of the best methods in maintaining consistent head pressure in the hopper is to use a horizontal infeed screw. This method ensures the hopper maintains a uniform and controlled fill level required to achieve consistent head pressure in the hopper. The fill level is controlled from a level sensor in the auger hopper. When the fill level dips below the designated low limit, the feed screw turns on and fills the hopper as needed to maintain a consistent level.
      
      
   2. HOPPER FILL LEVEL
      When your auger hopper doesn’t have consistent fill levels this will result in varying head pressures in the auger bowl. The auger tooling flights will then fill a different amount of product due to the changes in bulk density, causing your bags to be short-filled or over-filled.
      
      This wide variation with your weight control may lead to packages that don’t meet quality assurance and require more attention from the operator.
      
      Since the auger tooling is what actually feeds the product into the bag, it needs to deliver the same amount of product to the bag every time. As the volume of space between the auger flights is always the same, consistent bulk density plays an important role during the filling process.
      
      
   3. SPEED OF AUGER
      The optimum rotation of the auger is about three to four turns to fill a bag. Keeping the fills in this window will maximize speed of filling the stand up pouch or pillow bag and provide accurate weight control. Auger tooling is an important factor in this area. If your auger is only rotating one to two times per bag and your weight control is off, your tooling may be too large for the application.
      
      
   4. AGITATOR
      The agitator is designed for specific product applications such as non-free flowing powders. Determining the angle of repose and the bench test are two methods you can use to deduce if a product is free flowing or non-free flowing.
      Inside the auger hopper the agitator guides and pushes the product to the flights of the auger screw. It keeps the product from tunneling. You will want to make sure your agitator rotation is set for a speed that works with your product to achieve accurate fill weights.
      
      Agitator rotation speeds are user settable for optimal product performance.