The material you want to store - discharge - meter into process belongs to a class of very difficult to handle materials, Class 5. Class 5 materials are fibrous, flaky, flocculent, or chips that have long, irregular particle shapes, substantial diameter to length ratios, will physically and mechanically interlock, and often are light and fluffy with bulk densities less than 30-40 pcf. Most Class 5 materials will not be handled with typical, “standard catalog” equipment. Most often, very special equipment is required for these materials, as is in your case.

There are feeders being used successfully with similar materials in various industries such as textiles, tobacco, road building - resurfacing, process operations using long strand (>1/2 in.) fiberglass, and plastic film and regrinds, as examples. These feeders are also referred to as ‘Pin Feeders’. As the name implies, material is discharged by means of a series of drums with multiple, intermeshing pins located on the outer surfaces of the drums. Such ‘Pin Feeders’ have long been used in the handling of cotton and flax fibers in cotton ginning, for example.

Your problem must be broken down into two parts: storage and discharge, and then rate control or metering. A suitably designed storage vessel would be required to hold the 10-15 tn [1660 cft], which in itself would present a sizeable challenge for discharge into the feeder or conveyor. I would expect substantial bridging of material if any converging slopes were incorporated in the vessel design. Once the vessel design problem is solved, then the type of control device can be configured to mate to the vessel.

Our suggestion would be to look in the textile industry first if you have not already done so.