PVA and other diverse materials call for custom conveyor
How do you manage bulk materials handling when you have a huge range of materials and diverse site layouts? That’s the challenge faced by a polyvinyl acetate (PVA) manufacturer whose products service a wide range of industries including automotive, electronics, personal care, consumer products, aerospace, and building and construction. Manufacturing an extensive portfolio of additives and offering formulated products for their customers, means every plant in the international business is different. They wanted a custom conveyor and equipment that could manage a diverse range of industrial powders.
PVA processing challenge: Handling large volumes of 25 kg (50 lb) bags
One of the chemical company’s USA-based facilities needed to automate the manual transfer of 25 kg (50 lb) bags of cornstarch. Approximately 100 bags of the fine, lightweight powder were being added to a 5,897 kg (13,000 lb) capacity batch ribbon blender to produce slurry for compounded polyvinyl acetate (PVA) adhesive processing.
The manual material handling process was taking up to 90 minutes and was risky for plant operators from a health and safety standpoint. Manual handling also affected blend integrity and reduced overall operating efficiency. The site leader wanted to:
- Eliminate manual bag handling
- Improve operator safety
- Increase process line efficiency
- Reduce dust
- Find a conveyor that was easy to operate.
A site visit to another plant operation in the company’s group of chemical processing facilities gave them the opportunity to see a Floveyor powder handling system in action. Watching a demonstration of prilled urea being added to resin batches demonstrated similarities to their own PVA processing and convinced the site leader they had found a good solution to all their problems.
Moving to a fit-for-purpose custom conveyor design
The site leader got in touch with our powder handling experts. Following initial consultation which included a discovery conversation and solution modelling, we recommended a Floveyor aero-mechanical conveyor (AMC).
Why the AMC was selected
An AMC with FloDisc® Technology provides a fully enclosed system that controls dust, prevents product contamination, and ensures safe, efficient transfers at any elevation. The conveyor has been designed to minimise downtime, prevent clumping, and allow total batch transfers with easy cleaning. These were some of the qualities that impressed the site leader when he saw the Floveyor conveying solution in action. He agreed the AMC was the ideal solution for handling the diverse materials used in adhesive and sealant production.
Choosing the Floveyor Endura product range
Of the AMC product ranges, the Floveyor Endura is built for continual use in harsh industrial settings. Floveyor’s AMC Endura product range met all the specific conveying requirements for a multitude of difficult and dangerous bulk materials commonly used in additive and chemical processing. In addition, the Endura range could be easily paired with bulk material handling equipment, including a screw feeder to control the flow of bulk materials and a safety frame to improve worker health and safety during bulk bag unloading.
Conveyor mobility and modular design provide additional value
The next hurdle was overcoming plant constraints. The site had limited floor space and low headroom, which presented additional difficulties. The conveying system needed to have a small footprint and a modular design to integrate with existing plant technology.
The conveying system also needed to be mobile to help the operators move the equipment out of the PVA manufacturing area and into the warehouse when then conveyor is not in use, helping improve efficiency and overall safety by opening up floor space and keeping the forklift traffic lane clear.
The new powder handling solution from Floveyor consisted of:
Floveyor Endura F3 AMC with:
- Mobile option to free up space in the plant
- Screw feeder to regulate material flow
- Safety frame for bulk bag unloading.
New system provides regulated gentle, rapid flow for cornstarch
Preparing the Floveyor Endura to charge the blender is quick and simple. The operators now easily manage the four-step process without having to lift heavy bulk bags.
- Wheel everything to the mobile conveyor.
- Bolt the screw feeder’s feed tube to the conveyor’s feed tube.
- Roll the safety frame over the feeder hopper.
- Stage a bag on the frame.
The fully enclosed hopper fills in seconds once the operator opens the bag spout. Transfer rates are regulated by the speed of the screw feeder. The Endura mobile conveyor operates at a fixed speed, using FloDisc® technology to gently pull the suspended cornstarch through the conveyor to the discharge chute.
Endura range mobile conveyor improves efficiency and blend integrity
The Floveyor F3 from the Endura range met the challenge of automating an inefficient, ergonomically difficult process. It dramatically improved material throughputs, resulting in superior batch integrity and a cleaner operation.
The new Endura F3 enabled the chemical plant to:
- Increase total batch transfer sizes to accommodate 900–1,800 kg (2,000-4,000 lb) of bulk bagged cornstarch
- Slash blender charging times from 90 minutes to between 15 and 20 minutes
- Eliminate the risk of repetitive lifting injury and free the plant operator to do a range of other tasks
- Eliminate manual bag handling for plant operators
- Service the conveyor with two minor rope tension adjustments in a year
- Run a very clean conveying operation by:
- Discharging the cornstarch directly into the blender through a dust-tight flexible hose
- Hosing out the stainless-steel conveyor at the end of each shift.
Endura range is a custom fit conveying solution for chemical processing
The PVA plant experienced improved blending efficiency by moving much more material into the blender in shorter time frames. The site required minimal renovations to provide a steep flow angle for complete material discharge into the blender, including:
- Making a hole in the mezzanine about 1.2 m (4 ft) away from the blender inlet. The Floveyor was installed so the conveying tubes run straight through the hole, perpendicular to the floor.
- Stabilising the conveyor by anchoring the feed housing assembly to the floor.
- Securing the discharge housing assembly to a roof beam.
- Connecting a 2 m (7 ft) long, 1,8 m (6 ft) diameter flex hose to the discharge chute to the blender inlet.
Using a Floveyor in your chemical bulk materials handling
If you would like more information about how Floveyor conveying machinery for industrial powders can add efficiency in your chemical processing plant, get in touch with us. We are powder handling specialists for the chemical industry and can help you find the right solution for your brownfield or greenfield operation.
