Spiroflow IN ACTION
Customer requirements

Keeling & Walker Ltd of Stoke-on-Trent, UK is the world’s largest producer of Tin Oxide. Not only is Tin Oxide a very abrasive material, it is very difficult to handle: it smears, doesn’t flow well and readily bridges. So, back in early 2007, when Operations Manager, Martyn Pedley, came to replace a troublesome bucket elevator, he was concerned to find a conveyor that would be man enough for the job. And, in addition, he wanted to eliminate fugitive emissions to improve the working environment too. The problems with the bucket elevator were caused by the abrasive product getting into the chains and other mechanical parts. As a result, it had become too costly to maintain. Martyn Pedley did some research and concluded that either a Flexible Screw Conveyor or an Aero-Mechanical Conveyor would be possible solutions.

Until the end of 2007, the market value of sulphur had remained depressed at $100 a ton, and for one of the longest periods ever. This made the cost of recovery uneconomic so, it was just stockpiled as a result. However, when the price increased five-fold to $500 a ton at the end of 2007, recovery became a profit opportunity for the owners of an oil refinery in Kenai, on the North Slope of Alaska, USA.

We have supplied our highest accuracy ever ‘Spirofil’ Bulk Bag Filler to the world’s first industrial scale Nanotube manufacturing facility in Sambreville, Belgium.

Soliant, a paint film manufacturer based in Lancaster, South Carolina, USA, needed a better way to weigh and mix 125 Kg drums of acrylic resin. Employees manually pushed 125 Kg drums filled with the powder to a scale for weighing and adding to a mix. Once weighed out, two employees manually scooped around 700 grm of powder at a time from the drums to the mixing vessel, the beginning stage of the Fluorex™ process.

A company located in Baxley, Georgia, USA needed to discharge an explosive powder from Bulk Bags.

Colin Stewart Minchem, soon to change their name to AMCOL Minerals Europe to better reflect their business activities, won a contract that involved the mixing of minerals with chemicals.

Waste Recycling Group (WRG) is one of the leading waste management services companies in the UK. Each year they receive, recycle and dispose of more than 15 million tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste.

Nynas Bitumen UK, part of the Swedish AB Nynas Petroleum company, unlike other oil companies, is a bitumen specialist.

Spiroflow provided the solution for a major chemicals company needing a bulk bag discharger that could overcome a distinct lack of headroom and incorporate a number of customised features to batch silicon carbide into a mixing tank. Spiroflow solved the problem by designing a machine with a special low profile hoist and unloading station operating at a height of only 3.2m, compared to the head room of at least 5m required by most bulk bag dischargers on the market when an integral hoist is included on the machine.

Savings in downtime and material costs plus improved, faster production have been achieved by Colfix at its Dublin bitumen processing plant by replacing a manually-fed rigid screw conveyor with a Spiroflow bulk bag handling system. The new equipment comprises a Spiroflow Type 2 bulk bag discharger and a Type 5 low loading bulk bag discharger, each having a 2m Model 120 flexible screw conveyor which meters product to a 50 litre transition hopper.