Background
The Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls, New York is part of the Saint-Gobain Group, a French-based multinational corporation.
The Niagara Falls plant is one of more than 150 Saint-Gobain operations in North America manufacturing glass, housing products or high performance materials. Specifically, the Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials facility in Niagara Falls produces a proprietary premium abrasive grain for various customers.
The Problem
In an ongoing effort to improve the efficiency, ergonomic viability and safety of all its operations, Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials sought proposals for the automation of one of its mixing systems. Prior to the improved system, the operator was required to handle 50-pound bags of raw material; manually weighing and dumping the bag contents into the mixer. The existing process had the potential for spillage, inaccuracies in ingredient proportions, and operator injuries.
Cyclonaire Corporation was the successful bidder with a pneumatic system approach. Its compact nature, its potential to virtually eliminate material losses, and its low maintenance costs made the pneumatic conveying solution preferable to any system using mechanical or screw conveyors.
The Equipment
A Cyclonaire Bulk Bag Station was engineered for the beginning of the in-plant convey system. With this gravity load system, bags are electrically hoisted into the station and positioned above an enclosed hopper connected to a one cubic foot MP-1 Cyclolok®. The hopper is fitted with a door for easy access to the bag opening. Air for the convey process is stored in a Cyclonaire 60 gallon air receiver next to the Cyclolok. The dense phase process conveys the raw material 35 feet from the bag station through a 2" conveying line to a 15 cubic foot weigh hopper. To protect against corrosion, the Cyclolok, weigh hopper, and convey line are constructed of 304 stainless steel.
The hopper is equipped with load cells for process weighing and VibraPad aerators to aid in material discharge since it has a tendency to bridge and needs aeration to flow freely.
The Advantages The automated unloading system has allowed Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials to use 2,000-pound bulk bags to supply the process. This resulted in more efficient labor utilization, reduced potential of injury from the handling of raw material and a savings from more cost-effective packaging and shipping. Also, more accurate mixing of materials by the operator was achieved. Payback for the investment came within the first year of operation.