Flottweg AG

Until today, FLOTTWEG has manufactured and sold thousands of centrifuges and hundreds of belt presses worldwide. FLOTTWEG products are well received in the mining, petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and manufacturing industries as well as in the environmental area like treatment of waste water or oil sludge. FLOTTWEG’s objective is to develop, manufacture and provide products that meet all customer and industry requirements. High-grade manufacturing with constant advancement provide superior product quality and it is our commitment to maintain this standard. For the benefit of all our customers we consequently make use of our knowledge in process technology and experience we have acquired over decades. FLOTTWEG has a worldwide sales and service network with its own subsidiaries, branch offices and representations.

The company

Flottweg is one of the leading manufacturers of decanter centrifuges in the world. The company, which was founded in 1932 and has its origins in the times before World War I, started to develop, manufacture and sell decanter centrifuges (solid bowl centrifuges) in the mid 1950’s. Through the years, Flottweg has continued to develop widespread technical know-how in all areas of mechanical solid-liquid separation.

Flottweg’s current product range consists of decanters, belt presses and separators (automatic disc stack centrifuges) and handles many different applications and capacities from pilot plant to large-scale continuously operating production facilities.

Flottweg has manufactured and sold more than 6000 decanter centrifuges and hundreds of belt presses worldwide. Flottweg products are well received all over the world in the mining, petro-chemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and machining industry as well as in environmental areas like in the treatment of waste water or oil sludge.

Since the end of 2003, Flottweg has completely taken over the development, engineering design, and manufacturing of separators from its Italian subsidiary, Veronesi / Bologna Separators are mainly used for clarifying liquids. Decanters and separators are often complementary pieces of equipment especially when used in the food and mineral oil industry where higher degrees of clarification are required in the final products.

Flottweg has in many major industrialized countries its own branch offices and subsidiaries that include sales, engineering, and aftermarket support. In addition, Flottweg has local company representation in many countries that do not have a direct branch office or subsidiary. The export rate of Flottweg products is about 80 %. In 2006, over 500 employees world-wide have achieved a turnover of nearly 90 Million EUR.

Flottweg’s goal is to follow and support the market's needs by adapting to the separation requirements of our customers and maintaining our position as a leading technology manufacturer and supplier. All machines are designed and manufactured at our Headquarters in Vilsbiburg, Germany, which allows us to maximize our manufacturing efficiency, maintain the highest technical standards possible, and bring new technology developments to the market as quick as possible due to the excellent qualification and motivation of our employees.

Since antiquity, mankind has been making use of mechanical separation for wine clarification, milk skimming and gold washing. Characteristic of these simple methods is the separation by gravity settling, i. e., sedimentation by gravity on one hand as well as mechanical pressing on the other hand. Using centrifuges, gravity is replaced by centrifugal force. In today’s centrifuges this centrifugal force generates up to ten thousand times the force of gravity. Separation using centrifuges is performed faster and more efficiently than via gravity sedimentation. The pressing principle is performed using modern filter presses and centrifuges.

In many processes, mechanical separation is responsible or product quality, production efficiency and environmental compatibility. Mechanical separation processes are found in practically all industrial sectors, such as food processing, chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, metal processing, and environmental protection. Modern centrifuges have many advantages compared to other mechanical separation processes:

• compact design
• sealed construction to avoid odor emissions and product contamination
• ease of handling through continuous, automated operation
• no need for expenditure of filter media or filter aids, etc.

FLOTTWEG has developed solid-bowl scroll centrifuges such as DECANTERS, SEDICANTERS®, TRICANTERS® and SORTICANTERS® as well as DISK STACK CENTRIFUGES for many different applications.

FLOTTWEG BELT PRESSES complete FLOTTWEG’s product line. In contrast to the centrifuges the solid-liquid separation is performed via filtration and mechanical pressing. Compared with other filtration methods, the advantage of the belt press is the continuous operation.

Plastics recycling

For efficient recycling of plastics the patented Flottweg SORTICANTERs separate mixtures of polymers utilizing its densities.

Municipal waste water plants

For five decades Flottweg has been one of the worldwide leading DECANTER suppliers of DECANTERs for municipal waste water treatment. Flottweg has developed well appreciated DECANTER designs for:

• optimum thickening of surplus sludge (OSE-DECANTER)
• high grade dewatering of digested sludge (HTS-DECANTER)

The Flottweg product range includes DECANTERs up to capacities of 220 m3/h.

Paint sludge treatment

In the automotive and other industries, where construction elements are painted in paint booths Flottweg DECANTERs are separating the pigments from water/solvent enabling the liquor to be recirculated.

Oil sludge

Worldwide Flottweg DECANTERs, TRICANTERs and separators are in operation for processing and oil recovering of lagoon sludge, tank bottoms and refinery slops.

Steelwork sludge

There are several effective applications for Flottweg DECANTERs in steel works:

• dewatering from sludge gas scrubbers from flue dust and converter exhaust gas
• concentrating sludge from cold mill
• dewatering of scale sludge