August 2024

Heavy-Duty Tubular Incline Screw Conveyor to Convey Extremely Abrasive Alumina for Major Recycler

Application Notes & Case Studies /

This project offered a unique bulk material handling challenge due to the extremely abrasive characteristics of crushed alumina. KWS offered years of experience and expertise in conveying alumina and other extremely abrasive products. Because of the existing plant layout, Aleris required a 54-foot long screw conveyor to transfer crushed alumina from a screener to another conveyor. Aleris had used screw conveyors in the past with very disappointing results. Their previous solutions were poorly designed and a maintenance nightmare. Internal screw conveyor components such as screws, coupling shafts, hanger bearings and trough liners were only lasting a few weeks and adding tremendous amounts of downtime and additional labor costs.

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Easy Clean-Out Screw Conveyor for Milled Grain Industry

Application Notes & Case Studies /

One of North America’s largest food and ingredient companies operates a plant in Indiana and mills a wide variety of premium corn masa flours used in the production of tortillas and corn chips. The plant can produce nearly 32,000 tons of corn masa flour annually. KWS engineered and manufactured a screw conveyor to transfer corn flour from a cyclone with a rotary airlock and then to a rotary distributor that divides the material into four ports for the sifting process.

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Screw Conveyors for Corn in Masa Making Process

Application Notes & Case Studies /

A large North American food and ingredient company was expanding operations at their plant in Texas. Corn is processed and milled to make corn masa, the primary ingredient in tortillas, tortilla chips, and masa for tamales. KWS designed and manufactured several screw conveyors to be fed by weigh belt feeders and loss in weight feeders on the raw grain side of the process.

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Optimizing Frac Sand Transportation: A Case Study on Truck Trailers Equipped with Vortex Roller Gates

Application Notes & Case Studies /

In 2021 this customer was in the beginning phase of converting their pneumatic trailers to gravity trailers and was looking for a slide gate solution when they happened to see a Vortex Titan gate at a Frac Sand facility where they were providing services. Intrigued by the gate they asked the Frac Sand company about the equipment and found that the customer was very satisfied with their Vortex gates. The Frac Sand company suggested they reach out to Vortex for a solution. This customer contacted Vortex and initially trialed some Titan gates on their trailers. After a trial of the Titan gates the decision was made to use a custom Roller Gate instead to cut some weight. Vortex assisted by custom designing these roller gates that are used on the three outlets of each trailer. These gates are also sold with two air controllers so that they can be utilized from either side of the trailer.

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Piecing Together Solutions: Vortex Aero-Slide Handling PVC

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The Vortex Aero-Slide Conveyor is an ideal choice for handling plastic powders, providing reliability that is hard to find in traditional air slides. Designed with a focus on enhancing operational efficiency and reliability, this conveyor system utilizes a rectangle-shaped line, delineated by an air-permeable layer. This design incorporates a dual-chamber system that significantly optimizes material flow. By introducing low-pressure, dry air into the bottom chamber, it fluidizes materials, enabling their precise and smooth transportation.

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Eliminating Premature Rotary Paddle Bin Level Indicator Motor Failures

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The Monitor Technologies Model KA provided the answer to Strong’s problems. The KA rotary paddle bin level indicator uses a heavy-duty electric motor and a unique motor shut-off mechanism with external clutch and adjustable sensitivity. Rather than “stalling” the motor and allowing it to continue to over-torque and turn against the buried paddle, the Monitor Model KA shuts the motor off and extends overall life and ensures long-term reliability. Monitor’s Model KA is used as low and high level alarms on silos, bins and containers throughout Strong Company’s production operation.

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Vortex Drum Valve – Hydrated Lime

Application Notes & Case Studies /

The rotary valve by design provides a more metered approach to product flow due to the rotary being in the material path. In this application the rotary was determined to be the bottleneck that was restricting the loading capabilities.

A drum valve was selected because it has a similar footprint as the rotary but the more open throughput of the drum valve allows material to flow through it more freely.

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