Back in 1998, the then Preformas S.L company located close to Madrid, Spain were installing new production lines for the manufacture of brake shoe linings for commercial road vehicles. The heart of their system was, and still is, a large capacity mixer and two heavy duty press machines. The manufacture of friction materials is a specialist science involving physics, chemistry and manufacturing expertise.
Soliant, a paint film manufacturer based in Lancaster, South Carolina, USA, needed a better way to weigh and mix 125 Kg drums of acrylic resin. Employees manually pushed 125 Kg drums filled with the powder to a scale for weighing and adding to a mix. Once weighed out, two employees manually scooped around 700 grm of powder at a time from the drums to the mixing vessel, the beginning stage of the Fluorex™ process.
Waste Recycling Group (WRG) is one of the leading waste management services companies in the UK. Each year they receive, recycle and dispose of more than 15 million tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste.
Nynas Bitumen UK, part of the Swedish AB Nynas Petroleum company, unlike other oil companies, is a bitumen specialist.
Innospec is a global chemicals company with 1,000 employees in 23 countries. They divide their operations into three distinct business areas: Fuel Specialties, Active Chemicals, and Octane Additives. The Active Chemicals business includes companies, one of which is at Ellesmere Port, UK, that produce chemicals used in the manufacture of personal care products.
Colin Stewart Minchem, soon to change their name to AMCOL Minerals Europe to better reflect their business activities, won a contract that involved the mixing of minerals with chemicals. One of the main chemical ingredients is supplied in big bags. It is, according to Technical Manager, John Withenshaw, ‘Super moisture sensitive and, it is critical to the process that it is maintained in a dry condition before being introduced in to the mixer’.
A company located in Baxley, Georgia, USA needed to discharge an explosive powder from Bulk Bags. They had some specific requirements. Firstly, they needed to dump material from 10 kg bags as well as the Big Bags. The company was phasing out 10 Kg bags, but needed to maintain the capability to use them occasionally.
Spiroflow provided the solution for a major chemicals company needing a bulk bag discharger that could overcome a distinct lack of headroom and incorporate a number of customised features to batch silicon carbide into a mixing tank. Spiroflow solved the problem by designing a machine with a special low profile hoist and unloading station operating at a height of only 3.2m, compared to the head room of at least 5m required by most bulk bag dischargers on the market when an integral hoist is included on the machine.
Savings in downtime and material costs plus improved, faster production have been achieved by Colfix at its Dublin bitumen processing plant by replacing a manually-fed rigid screw conveyor with a Spiroflow bulk bag handling system. The new equipment comprises a Spiroflow Type 2 bulk bag discharger and a Type 5 low loading bulk bag discharger, each having a 2m Model 120 flexible screw conveyor which meters product to a 50 litre transition hopper.
Building Adhesives Ltd, manufacturers of ‘BAL’ and ‘Dunlop’ construction adhesives, needed a new production line that would generally meet their production targets through single shift working. The new line was designed to replace 3 aging lines that all had to work through a double shift to keep up with demand.
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