One of India’s leading paint companies was struggling to meet the challenges of conveying panacea fibre. Floveyor introduced the company to a new way of handling their bulk materials using a tubular drag conveyor and an aero-mechanical conveyor together in the process line.
The company operates in 15 countries and has 26 paint manufacturing facilities globally, servicing consumers in over 60 countries. Their innovative panacea product had presented multiple conveying challenges they needed to overcome to grow their manufacturing business.
Panacea material properties
Panacea fibre is a lightweight, white fibre used by chemical processing and manufacturing industries. It’s often found in products in the building industry including stucco, render, plaster, mortar, paint, sealant, concrete, self-levelling floors, and sprayed concrete. Due to its extremely light composition, conveying panacea can be difficult because it bridges and creates rat holes in hoppers. Product builds up on filters. Dust and operator safety isare also a concerns.
Aero-mechanical conveyor best choice for transferring panacea
The Indian company needed a conveying solution in one of their existing plants to convey their product panacea, a white fibre product with a bulk density of 110kg/m3.
Previous unsuccessful attempts with other technologies included screw conveyors and pneumatic conveying. Those conveying systems either could not convey the product or issues occurred such as build up on the filters. The company turned to Floveyor, the powder handling specialists, and requested materials testing be performed prior to making a purchasing decision.
The customer needed reassurance that Floveyor technology could operate effectively in the existing processing system before committing to a full installation. Floveyor was confident their fully enclosed aero-mechanical conveyor (AMC) with FloDisc® Technology could handle panacea successfully.
Floveyor AMC machinery was configured to suit the customers’ needs by taking into consideration density of material, temperature, delivery system, and the process used for materials handling.
Aero-mechanical conveying of panacea in action
Successful material trials were carried out by Floveyor’s Indian partner Kiron. From these satisfactory results, the customer commissioned an installation of an 11.5-metre-long Endura F3 aero-mechanical conveyor elevating the product to the mixing vessel.
After 12 months of successful production the customer had the confidence that Floveyor’s aero-mechanical method of conveying was a reliable solution for conveying panacea and were ready to expand their investment in Floveyor conveying systems.
Adding Floveyor tubular drag conveyor to the process line
Stage two tackled the problem of complex routes and multiple discharge points in the customer’s plant. Fixed plant process line technology from Floveyor helped the company optimise their operation. An additional Endura F3 Bi-Directional Conveyor (BDC) and a tubular drag conveyor (TDC) F4 slow speed unit were paired to transfer materials horizontally to four different outlets. The existing Endura F3 conveyor was also modified. The three conveyors were integrated together to feed four mixing vessels.
During commissioning, minor issues were found with the Endura F3 BDC. As a result of the low density and fibrous nature of the product, the material would recirculate and build up in the opposing housing and bridges, and rat holes were forming. Floveyor engineers easily solved this issue by adding ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWP) internal liners to eliminate the point of build-up in the housings.
Panacea materials testing video
Watch the panacea powder handling video to see actual material trial footage from test to factory installation. Floveyor AMC and TDC conveyors work together to optimise bulk material powder handling in a paint manufacturing plant.
For more information about Floveyor powder handling systems
If you would like to know more about aero-mechanical conveying with FloDisc Technology or tubular drag conveying, get in touch with Floveyor. As powder handling specialists, we have complete conveying and distribution systems for powders, granules, fibres, flakes, seeds, beads, and pellets.
