HammerTek Corporation articles

Elbow Cuts Maintenance

Problem

Stonhard Inc., processes and packages colored silica aggregate at its Ft. Wayne, IN facility. The material is part of a three-component mortar consisting of liquid epoxy resin and a liquid curing agent used for industrial and commercial flooring applications.

Some 82,000 lb. of this aggregate is pneumatically conveyed from blending vessels to holding silos every day. Ceramic elbows used in the pn

Smart Elbow® ends elbow wear problem in paving plant

Subject

Western Paving Corporation`s Denver, Colorado plant

Situation

A division of Western Mobil, Western Paving Corporation makes asphalt for their own extensive paving operation as well as supplying others`. The plant produces 29 different paving product mixes, including recycled mixes, at the fully computerized facility.

As part

Chromalloy, Drilling Fluids Division, produces barite at its Houston, TX facility.

Chromalloy was using standard elbows on its 4- and 5"-diameter pneumatic conveying lines, which carry barite from the grinding mill to the storage tanks where it is stored prior to loading into hopper cars and bulk trucks.

Figure 1: A cross section of the new type of elbow in use at Chromalloy. Suspended material coming from the right forms the slowly revolving soft mass of product suspend

Smart Elbow® prevents wear-through in wastewater treatment plant`s lime conveying lines.

Alexandria Sanitation Authority, Alexandria, Virginia

Situation

As the city`s primary sewage treatment facility, this plant treats an average of 40 to 45 million gallons a day. At peak, the volume can exceed 80 million gallons a day, as the plant operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition to Alexandria, the plant also serv

Smart Elbow® solves plastics problem

Subject

ACRO Extrusion Corporation`s Wilmington, DE plant.

Situation

Stainless steel sweep elbows were wearing through at ACRO Extrusion Corporation, causing considerable downtime, product loss, and maintenance expense. The sweep elbows in their pneumatic conveying system were wearing through every week to two weeks, requiring frequent system shut down. Due t

RheTech found that HammerTek Smart Elbows could convey highly abrasive finished product with few signs of wear after a year in service. The sweeps previously used lasted only three or four months.

RheTech, Inc. of Whitmore Lake, Michigan, a designer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary thermoplastic polyolefin alloys and compounds uses such additives as minerals, fiber reinforcements and other additives in their alloys and compounds that are sold to the transportation and cons

Schmalbach-Lubeca operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, manufacturing millions of plastic bottles each day for the beverage industry. With a total of 63 plants worldwide, 17 locations are within the United States.

The Blythewood, South Carolina location was using long radius elbows to convey PET Poly Pellets from the rail car to the silo, and from the silo to the molding operation. "Streamers" were collecting on the magnet protection before the molding operation, effectively "cho

Six years after installation, the Smart Elbow® has provided years of maintenance free production and still eliminates streamers.

It`s been close to five years since HammerTek did a case study on the 120 Smart Elbows® installed at RheTech, Inc.`s Whitmore Lake, Michigan plant. That first case study presented the drastic difference in how operations had changed after the June 1997 installation of our Smart Elbows. Recently we did a status check with Gary Wright, Director of P

Clogging was a major problem in transferring abrasive material in a fiberglass process. The resulting operating inefficiencies were ended with a new type of piping elbow.

By Leslie Burt

Fiberglass is produced in an automated process at Fiberglas Canada`s plant in Scarborough, Ontario. The process starts with six ingredients, the main ones being sand, borax, soda ash and limestone. After they are weighed automatically in hoppers at the bottom of batch storage silos, the i

Elbows Solve Pneumatic Wear Problems

Problem

It happened again and again. At the Pet Foods Division of Quaker Oats in Rockford, Illinois, the stainless steel elbows in their pneumatic conveying systems were wearing out every three months, or even less.

Elbows were wearing through in three different systems: Two of the systems carry grains (barley, soy bean meal, soy bean hulls) from storage areas to receiving tanks for further