Application
Belt Conveying in Pet Food Plants
Answer in brief
Pet food conveying is a fight on two fronts: the product breaks and the fat sticks.
Fines at the bottom of the bag come from transfer points, and the fat film that collects them is the cleaning problem of the plant.
- Count the transfer points and remove the ones that exist out of habit.
- Design the belt and chutes for fat cleaning.
- Measure fines at the packer, not at the coater.
Reviewed October 21, 2026 · Updated October 21, 2026
The problem
Coated kibble leaves a fat film on every surface, which collects fines and eventually falls back into the product.
Each drop adds breakage, and broken kibble changes both the appearance and the bulk density in the bag.
Desired outcome
A conveying line that delivers the rate without spillage, keeps the product in the condition it arrived in and can be cleaned and maintained without a shutdown.
Process approach
Wide belts running slowly, shallow inclines and short cushioned drops keep the piece count intact.
Chutes and skirts are designed to be opened and cleaned, because fat does not simply fall off.
Where vertical movement is needed, a bucket elevator with soft discharge is gentler than a straight drop into a silo.
- Transfer count reduced at the design stage.
- Removable chute sections and accessible belt returns.
- Fines measurement at the packer as a routine check.
Selection factors
- Fat application rate and the resulting cleaning interval.
- Breakage limit in the finished bag.
- Bulk density range across the product list.
- Recipe changeover and medicated feed segregation.
- Dust explosion characteristics of the fines.
Common failure modes
- Fat film collecting fines and dropping back into the product
- Breakage accumulating across unnecessary transfer points
- Cleaning skipped because chutes cannot be opened
- Bulk density shifting in the bag as fines increase
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