The Wrights Dowson Group has a long history of manufacturing a wide range of products for various industries where it’s essential to continuously measure or monitor different types of materials at constant volumes and extremely high accuracy.

As an established UK manufacturer of multiple products for wide-ranging industries, including pharmaceutical, animal feed and grain, paper, food and drink, the Wrights Dowson Group also designs metering feeders as part of its portfolio, under license the Metalfab range of MetaTech™ Volumetric Metering Screw Feeders.

What is a Metering Feeder?

It is a piece of machinery that meters powders, flakes, pellets and groups of materials in a highly accurate and reliable way, with little margin for error.

A basic model metering feeder has a specially designed chamber that contains a slowly turning agitator and variable control functions. These ensure that the metering feeder can operate either on a continuous or intermittent setting, depending upon what type of product is being handled.

Whatever the product being handled is, it is put into a metering feeder. The result is that the product or material is metered out at a constant volume of between ±1% to ± 2%.

How Does a Metering Feeder Work?

When operated, the agitator or conditioner screw in the metering feeder starts to move materials forward in the feeder’s trough. It is simple for the feeder’s material to flow through and around because the agitator/conditioner screws have a larger diameter than the metering feeder screw. They also have a wire configuration.

This creates a 360° direction of material forces entrained air up and out of the metering area and force-feeds material into the flights of the metering screws. This, in turn, ensures that they are entirely full of consistently dense material.

Metering Feeder Features and Advantages

There are several advantages to using a Wrights Dowson Group metering feeder, including its features:

  • There’s a wide range of models to choose from, including a combination feeder/conveyor unit, a sanitary metering feeder and a space-saving mini metering feeder.
  • Metering feeders are suitable for use with very fine to coarse materials and powders, including porous ones.
  • The design is space-saving and compact.
  • The design is easy to maintain, mainly because it has a simple to remove front cover that ensures access and cleaning are safe and straightforward.
  • They come with a Teflon® Rear Seal Standard that provides many years of maintenance-free service.
  • The metering feeder is available with Cinchseal.
  • Metering Feeders come in interchangeable Screw/Tube combinations and are available in sizes ranging from 12mm to 150mm sizes, with permit feed rates from 0.015 to 15.6 M3 per hour.
  • A choice of different sized drive motor depending upon material size and requirements
  • It is solidly constructed from either mild steel, 304 stainless steel, 316 stainless steel or epoxy coated carbon steel, depending on your requirements. The stainless steel units are provided with a 2B mill finish.

Aside from the above benefits, there are other advantages to using a Wrights Dowson metering feeder. They’re mainly UK-manufactured. Therefore, there are no difficulties with long-delivery times.

Which Industries is a Metering Feeder Suitable For?

Several industries use metering feeders as part of their manufacturing processes, including:

  • Food and snack food industry
  • Water industry
  • Chemical industry
  • Pharmaceutical industry
  • Plastics industry

A metering feeder is an ideal solution for industries that handle powder, granules and flakes for various reasons such as recipe formulation, batch preparation, product conditioning and multiple feeder combinations. Metering feeders are essential in the above industries where continuous flow measurement by volume is needed and continuous measurement by weight and loss in weight.

Learn More

The Wrights Dowson Group has a long-established reputation as a UK manufacturer of quality design products. We guarantee a fast speed of delivery and design bespoke metering feeders and screw conveyors, and other products to suit your operations. Our advanced IT and engineering solutions will match our product’s specifications to suit your applications.

If you’re looking to learn more about metering feeder products, get in touch with us at Wrights Dowson Group for a quotation, technical support, and advice.