Category: Case Study

Blowouts aren’t just costly due to lost productivity and extensive cleanup; they often carry substantial health risks and safety concerns from spilled material and environmental conditions. This was certainly the case with the Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority (UOSA).

Robert Ober & Associates is a specialty design/build firm that serves an international client base for bulk material handling projects that range from $25,000 retrofit contracts to $25-million turnkey plant projects. The company’s early focus on pneumatic material handling for concrete plants has grown to include a wide range of material handling, weigh batching, and powder blending systems in mining, grain, fertilizer, food, fly ash, plastics,

Five years after we did a case study on the 120 HammerTek® Smart Elbow® deflection elbows installed at RheTech, Inc., we checked in with them to find out how the elbows were holding up. RheTech is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary thermoplastic

A company that produces pipe was having some troubles of its own before the HammerTek® Smart Elbow® deflection elbow solved its problem. Rensselaer Plastics Co. of Rensselaer, Ind., produces PVC piping products for the plumbing trade, with annual sales in the $40 million range. One process at the plant uses a pneumatic conveying system to transfer resin and pellets from storage hoppers to pipe extruders, and therein lay the plant’s Achilles Heel.

The pulp and paper industry is no stranger to the problems that result from the demands that wood chips and dust put on conveying systems. That’s why when a engineers at a British Columbian sawmill designed their new pneumatic conveying system, they were sure to specify a manufacturing elbow that could withstand the abrasive nature of cedar by-products without plugging. For the full case study, click here.

HammerTek® Smart Elbow® deflection elbows can offer benefits beyond solving manufacturing problems. When Miller Brewing Company needed a space-saving design solution, they found the elbows solved their predicament and saved them money in the process.

When the Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority (UOSA) experienced a blowout, it caused not only costly and time-consuming downtime and cleanup, but also health risks and safety concerns. Thanks to the HammerTek® Smart Elbow® deflection elbow, the wastewater treatment plant hasn’t had an elbow failure again since installation. Click here to read the full case study.

The HammerTek Smart Elbow® deflection elbows reduce the costly headaches of manufacturing plug-ups. Learn how we solved this problem for Fiberglas Canada by reading the full case study here.

RheTech, Inc. was all too familiar with worn out elbows in their plant. When Gary Wright, Director of Plant Engineering, had one of the HammerTek® Smart Elbow® deflection elbows they had installed a year earlier pulled to check for wear and tear, he assumed it would require considerable repair, if not replacement. “After one year in service, we could still see the casting marks,” said Wright. “By now, we would have been through four or …

Abrasive materials can wreak havoc on conveying systems and Carbo Ceramics’ application is a perfect example. To read the full case study, click here. The Eufaula, Ala.-based manufacturer was performing weekly repairs on the worn elbows of its ceramic bead plant. The company replaced all 12 elbows in their system with HammerTek® Smart Elbow® deflection elbow technology. The Smart Elbow units have lasted at least four years compared to the one- or two-week lifespan of their …

Even innocent-looking PET poly pellets can wreak havoc on conveying systems when the perfect storm of variables come into play. Such was the case with Schmalbach-Lubeca’s Blythewood, SC plant. Manufacturing plastic bottles for use in the beverage industry is a 24/7 operation, and line shutdowns were proving to be an expensive problem. Similar to many manufacturing and production facilities, the Blythewood plant used conventional long-sweep elbows as part of the conveying system, moving the pellets …

To comply to federal sulfur dioxide emissions standards, PECO Energy Company’s Eddystone plant employs a scrubbing process using magnesium oxide (MgO). The material is pneumatically conveyed from storage silos to a mixer before being sprayed into the exhaust stacks. Producing electricity is a 24/7/365 operation and the MgO system must always be running. Simply put, elbow failure is not an option. In reality, however, the standard 316L stainless pipe elbows that made up the pneumatic …

Montgomery County’s North Incinerator plant outside Dayton, Ohio, uses finely powdered limestone in its three incinerator units to bring sulfur dioxide emissions (a by-product of combustion) in line with EPA air pollution standards. Each day, approximately 18,000 pounds of the highly abrasive, dusty material are conveyed through the facility using long-radius stainless steel sweep elbows. Long considered the industry standard, these conventional sweep elbows are critical components in any conveying system. Failures at these crucial …

Breweries like Miller Brewing Company’s Fort Worth, Texas facility demand efficient use of space — and for good reason. The production of beer from grain to glass requires moving barley malt and water (the two primary ingredients) from storage vessel to mash tun to boil kettle to bright tank. Plagued by maintenance and housekeeping problems stemming from a single automatic diverter in the grain upload system, Roy Marin, staff engineer at the facility, decided to …

When you’re in the business of manufacturing and handling abrasive materials, line plugs and worn-out elbows (and the resultant downtime and losses in productivity) are troublesome and costly realities. That was exactly the case for Dave Goodwin, Plant Maintenance Superintendent for the Scarborough, Ontario plant of Fiberglas Canada. Goodwin’s plant suffered through as many as 20 wear-related clogs per year — always occurring at the same two refractory elbows in the conveying system connecting the …

Even the most seemingly innocuous materials can be become destructively abrasive when moved pneumatically — maintenance manager Al Husni of ACRO Extrusion Corporation saw it firsthand. A Wilmington-based company, ACRO produces vinyl window systems and extrusion. PVC resin, a key component in vinyl formulations, was moved pneumatically at such a high rate (34,000 pounds per day), traditional sweep elbows were wearing through as often as every 14-21 days. These line failures were costly. Repairs and …

Essroc Materials Inc. produces nearly 400,000 tons of cement annually using two 400-foot rotary kilns. The wet-process cement in Frederick, Md. was continually plagued by dust produced as a natural by-product of cement kilning. How much dust? Try 120 tons of dust every 24 hours. A portion of this dust is sold for use in various industrial and agricultural applications, but the majority must be moved pneumatically and recycled back through the kilns through a …

With a daily volume exceeding 80 million gallons of water treated, the Alexandria Sanitation Authority knows a little bit about the need for efficiency and just how catastrophic line breaches can be. To control pH, the facility uses more than 500,000 pounds of pelletized lime each month. Trucks deliver the material to 70-foot silos via a pair of four-inch lines. Due to its abrasive nature, pelletized lime was wreaking havoc on the conveying system by …

Hammertek’s Smart Elbow® deflection elbow saves space, time and money. If you’ve ever read this blog, you know that. Practically every article we’ve posted has highlighted the tangible benefits realized by companies across multiple industries once they’ve made the switch to Smart Elbow products. The combination of a small footprint and innovative design make the Smart Elbow deflection elbow an ideal solution for high-wear, high-volume environments.

PECO Energy Company’s Eddystone plant employs a scrubbing process using magnesium oxide (MgO) pneumatically conveyed from storage silos to a mixer before being sprayed into the plant’s exhaust stacks — a process necessary to keep the plant in compliance with federal sulfur dioxide emissions standards. Whenever the coal-fired plant is generating electricity, the MgO system must be operational. Elbow failure is not an option.