The fines will not mix effectively just by depositing the addition onto sugar moving along a belt conveyor but, assuming that the feeder adds the fines in the correct proportions and distributes across the belt relative to the moving bed depth, the addition will be well placed for delivering the right blend as there should not be any lateral segregation along the flow stream. Subsequent handling will provide some degree of cross-stream mixing, but the material should be blended more effectively by a simple static mixer at some point before the flow is divided to the four packing machines because the composition following division of the flow to the packing machines will be highly sensitive to the cross sectional homogeneity of the mixture and how the flow line is separated and diverted.

Further handling to and in the packing machine may allow subsequent segregation, particularly if there is a buffer hopper on the packing machine. The degree of composition variation in the pack will then depend on the size of the package.

Like most applications that involve segregation, the detail construction of transfer points and storage containers any most important. An experience review of the proposed flow route construction would probably be valuable. Some tips on minimising and rectifying segregation are given in my book, ‘User guide to Segregation’, published by The British Materials Handling Board. ■