jul 14, 2013
Case Histories
Case studies
OLDS ELEVATOR™ Case Studies
CASE HISTORY No. 1Casing Diam: 4 inch Elevation: 20 feet Rate per hr. 2 ton Material: Biomass Pellets Special Features: Volumetric Feeder/Elevator
Biomass to Energy Co. USA
Project Description A company that had developed a process of converting cellulosic biomass into Synthesis Gas to fuel a turbine to generate electricity contacted Olds Elevator LLC about an elevator to feed a biomass reactor. The feedstock for the reactor was wood pellets made from sawdust.
A 4-inch diameter, 20 foot tall elevator was supplied to feed the reactor. The customer was particularly pleased with the precise volumetric flow rate control offered by the Olds elevator and its inherent dust explosion risk control. Since the elevator delivers material vertically in a fully-flooded column there is no room for dust to form thereby reduces the risk of a dust explosion dramatically.
CASE HISTORY No. 2Casing Diam: 10 inch Elevation: 20 feet Rate per hr: 36 ton Material: Manganese Dioxide
Brick Making Plant So. Carolina, USA
Project Description A leading U.S. brick maker sought to replace an existing bulk material elevator used to refill a Loss in Weight (LIW) feeder with Manganese Dioxide (Mn02). Their existing conveyor caused excessive aeration of the Mn02 which interfered with the operation of the LIW feeder. The customer required a minimum flow rate equivalent to 28,000 lbs/hr to a height of 15 feet. The elevator would be used only for short duration runs while refilling the LIW feeder.
Olds Elevator tested samples of the customer's Mn02 in the Olds lab and designed and built a 10-inch diameter Olds elevator for the job. The elevator was installed and put into service. The problem with aeration was eliminated and the LIW feeder is refilled with 200 lbs of Mn02 in 10 seconds (a rate of 72,000 lbs/hr).
CASE HISTORY No. 3Casing Diam: 6 inch Elevation: 20 feet Rate per hr: 10 ton Material: Sulfur Pastilles Special Features: Volumetric Feeder/Elevator
Asphalt Plant Canada
Project Description An international oil company contacted Olds Elevator LLC with a request to elevate sulfur pastilles into an asphalt pavement mixing operation. The customer was seeking to demonstrate that sulfur could be used as a partial replacement for bitumen cement binder in road paving operations and thereby reduce the amount of bitumen used while meeting the same performance criteria.
A 20 foot tall, 6-inch diameter elevator was designed and built for the customer. The elevator was fitted with an encoder that enabled the counting of the elevator casing revolutions. The casing RPM's are monitored by the elevator's PLC and are used to calibrate the elevator as a volumetric feeder. Using a Variable Frequency Drive the elevator is used to meter sulfur into the mixer at rates ranging 3-9 metric tons per hour.
The elevator is moved from site to site on different road building projects in North America.
In the photo, the elevator is fitted with an impact weigher scale to provide gravimetric evidence of the elevator throughput for various Departments of Transportation.
CASE HISTORY No. 4Casing Diam: 6 inch Elevation: 28 feet Rate per hr: 8 ton Material: Granulated Sugar
Sugar Refinery Queensland, Australia
Project Description A leading Australian sugar refiner needed to elevate granulated sugar to a mill used to make icing (powdered) sugar. A bucket elevator used for the job had failed once too many times and they opted to replace it with an Olds elevator. Their process involved receiving granulated sugar in 1 ton bulk bags and elevating it 28 feet to the inlet of the mill.
A 6-inch diameter Olds elevator was designed and built for the application. Forklifts deliver bulk bags to a purpose-built bulk bag unloader. The feed hopper of the Olds elevator is oversized to hold 1,000 lbs of sugar. The elevator delivers the sugar vertically in fully-flooded mode whereby no dust is allowed to form during elevation. The oversized feed hopper allows the operator time to replace empty bags without having the shut off the mill. The absence of dust during elevation reduces the risk of dust explosions dramatically.
CASE HISTORY No. 5 Casing Diam: 3 inch Elevation: 9 feet Rate per hr: 2 ton Material: Sand Special Features: Recovers and reuses overspill productProject Description Olds Elevator LLC recently helped a major U.S. brick maker solve a chronic sand handling problem at 2 plants.
In the process of making bricks sand is often applied to the exterior of the brick clay before firing in the kiln. The sand is added to provide different colors and textures to brick to meet the various demands of the marketplace.
The process of adding sand involves elevating sand above the conveying line that carries freshly extruded brick clay and depositing the sand on to the top and sides of the extruded clay. In order to ensure complete coverage a significant percentage of the sand is overspill. For some brick runs the amount of overspill sand is more than the amount of sand actually applied to the brick. At many plants this overspill is not recoverable for reuse and is therefore wasted.
Working with the customer's Project Manager, Olds Elevator designed an elevator that would deliver sand from a hopper below the brick line to a discharge point above the brick conveying line. A chute extension of the Olds elevator feed hopper reaches under the brick line to capture 100% of the overspill sand and return it, by gravity to the feed hopper for reuse.
The customer's maintenance team built and fitted the hopper to mate with the Olds elevator. A Variable Frequency Drive is used to control the flow rate of sand to the brick line. The production manager is so satisfied that he stated that the addition of the Olds elevator was the best improvement to the brick making line he has seen in 27 years at the plant.
CASE HISTORY No. 6Casing Diameter: 8 inch Elevation: 24 feet Rate per hour: 33 tons Material: Ceramic Beads
CERAMIC BEAD MANUFACTURER Louisiana, USA
Project Description A manufacturer of ceramic beads was seeking to reduce the amount of time spent cleaning out the conveyor used to load bulk transport trucks between loading different product grades. Having utilized bucket elevators and cleated belt conveyors they found it still took more than 1 hour to prepare the conveyor for a new grade of product for loading.
OLDS ELEVATOR™ designed and built an elevator that not only exceeded the flow rate requirement of 25 tons per hour but the changeover time to clean the elevator was reduced to 10 minutes. Trucks are loaded with 50,000 pounds of ceramic beads in 45 minutes.
CASE HISTORY No. 7Casing diam: 2.5 inches Elevation: 18 feet Rate per hr: 1 ton Material: sand
FOUNDRY Queensland, Australia
Project Description A small foundry purchased a new mixing machine that automatically blends binding agents into foundry sand before casting. Sand must be elevated to a height of 18 feet to fill the mixer's raw sand hopper.
The foundry owner initially considered an inclined screw conveyor for the job, but lacked sufficient floor space.
The problem was solved with an OLDS ELEVATOR™ vertical conveyor. Occupying less than 3 square feet of floor space, it delivers sand to the mixer's hopper as needed. A level switch in the hopper turns on the flow of sand from the OLDS ELEVATOR™ vertical conveyor when needed and shuts it off when the hopper is full.
The casing diameter of this OLDS ELEVATOR™ design is 2.5 inches and sand is delivered to a height of 18 feet at a rate in excess of 1 ton per hour.
CASE HISTORY No. 8Casing diam: 4 inches Elevation: 21 feet Rate per hr: 6 tons Material: sand
FOUNDRY Mazatlan, Mexico
Project Description A mid-size foundry was seeking an efficient method to elevate foundry sand to a height of 21 feet to feed their sand mixing machine.
The foundry had been using a crane to hoist bags of sand up to workers who emptied the bags into the mixer's hopper. The foundry owners considered purchasing a pneumatic conveyor to elevate their sand.
Instead, they purchased a 4-inch diameter OLDS ELEVATOR™ vertical conveyor for a fraction of the cost of the pneumatic conveyor. It delivers sand to a height of 21 feet at a rate of 6 tons per hour.
CASE HISTORY No. 9Casing diam: 6 inches Elevation: 25 feet Rate per hr: 10-12 tons Material: crops
FARMERS' COOPERATIVE Queensland, Australia
Project Description A crop processing facility sought to replace the 30-year old bucket elevators at their grading and sorting plant. The facility processes beans, wheat, corn and oats. Five (5) bucket elevators were deployed to feed various sorting, grading and packaging units at the plant.
The plant had decided to replace the 5 bucket elevators with 7 Tubeveyors (inclined belt conveyors with U-shaped belts). Prior to installing the Tubeveyors they learned about the OLDS ELEVATOR™ vertical conveyor.
A series of trials were conducted with a four-inch diameter OLDS ELEVATOR™ test unit to determine whether it would handle the wide variety of beans and seeds that the plant processes. All products were easily elevated in the test machine. The customer was also pleased with the gentle handling of the OLDS ELEVATOR™ design.
Their entire range of products was elevated with little or no damage and virtually no dust was created. The four-inch test unit could elevate their crops at a rate of 10-12 tons per hour. The plant required 12 tons per hour to be elevated.
Prior to building actual working units for the plant, a six-inch diameter test unit was constructed to document flow rate performance. This unit elevated the full range of crops at 10-12 tons per hour, depending on the crop.
The facility ultimately replaced their 5 bucket elevators with just two OLDS ELEVATOR™ vertical conveyors, saving thousands of dollars in capital costs and recovering significant floor space at their plant. The elevators are fitted with variable speed drives so the plant can control the flow rate with precision. A great reduction in the ambient noise level of the plant was also realized.
CASE HISTORY No. 10Casing diam: 4 inches Elevation: 21 feet Rate per hr: 2 tons Material: nuts, shells
MACADAMIA NUT GROWER Queensland, Australia
Project Description A macadamia nut grower was seeking to automate their nut processing operation. Macadamia nuts are first dried, then sorted, cracked and packed for sale.
An OLDS ELEVATOR™ vertical conveyor was designed and installed to elevate whole nuts to fill a drying silo. Its discharge can be switched to transfer the dried nuts instead to a storage silo prior to cracking and packaging.
The same OLDS ELEVATOR™ unit is also used to elevate the shells after cracking. The shells are used as fuel by area industry.
CASE HISTORY No. 11Casing diam: 4 inches Elevation: 15 feet Rate per hr: 2 tons Material: gypsum powder
GYPSUM COMPANY Illinois, USA
Project Description A gypsum company wanted to test the OLDS ELEVATOR™ technology on a range of products from raw gypsum powder to refined gypsum product such as Plaster of Paris and stucco powders.
A mobile OLDS ELEVATOR™ was designed for their Research and Development center for use in a Pilot Plant to feed their kiln.
Pending successful completion of trials at the Pilot Plant the company expects to use OLDS ELEVATORS™ to replace 3 pieces of equipment in new plants: bucket elevator, overhead storage hopper and volumetric feeder. By using the OLDS ELEVATOR™ to feed their kiln directly, they will also be able to reduce the height of new plants from 4 stories to 2 stories.
CASE HISTORY No. 12Casing diam: 6 inches and 4 inches Elevation: 35 feet and 25 feet Rate per hr: 15 tons and 4 tons Material: Beans and Seeds
FARMERS' COOPERATIVE Queensland Australia
Project Description This crop processing plant purchased two OLDS ELEVATORS™ in 2004 to replace some old bucket elevators. When a new product bagging operation was proposed the management evaluated their equipment and manpower costs. If approved, they would need two new elevators to supply product to the new bagging lines.
They determined that OLDS ELEVATORS™ would be the most economical method to feed the bagging operation even though they were more expensive to buy than conventional elevators. Using experience gained from using their first two OLDS ELEVATORS™ the plant management determined that the new bagging operation would need less manpower to operate it if OLDS ELEVATORS™ were employed.
Two new OLDS ELEVATORS™ were installed in 2006. A 4-inch diameter by 25 foot tall unit and a 6-inch diameter by 35 foot tall unit shown being installed through an opening in the roof.
CASE HISTORY No. 13Casing diam: 6-inches and 4 inches Elevation: 15.5 feet Rate per hr: 15 tons and 4 tons Material: Gravel and Sand
CONCRETE BLOCK AND PAVER MANUFACTURER Queensland Australia
Project Description A manufacturer of pre-cast concrete building and paving blocks needed to elevate sand and gravel to feed a mixer.
Two OLDS ELEVATORS™ were selected for the job. One 6-inch diameter elevator delivers 15 tons per hour of gravel and one 4-inch diameter elevator delivers 4 tons per hour of sand.
Each OLDS ELEVATOR™ is fed by a belt conveyor about 2 feet above floor level.