Grading Dried Herbs

Requirement

To ensure the removal of oversize and fines from a dried herb so the oversize portion can be recycled for regrind and the fines (dust) can be used elsewhere. The client required the product to be a specific size, suitable for supermarket display.

Operation

The product was fed from cutting/grind unit above and fractions of the product were then discharged into various receptacles depending on their size.

Solution

A Sievmaster 1200 Multiscreen sieve was utilised to grade and separate the product, it was fitted with two sieve screens, the top screen removing oversize and the lower the fine product. The large diameter unit provided an adequate area for the product to flow out from the screen centre, so each flake of herb was presented to the screen, thus obtaining an accurate separation with minimal product losses.

The unit was mounted upon a raised fixed stand to obtain the required discharge heights suitable for the client’s production. An enclosed top along with sleeved discharge outlets helped to prevent dust caused by the flowing product.

Results

The grading sieve adequately separated the product as required with volume to spare, which resulted in the client being able to increase production rate as product demand increased.