Pump purchase return on investment may be measured in days
By Mike Libbey, Area Sales Manager CIRCOR and Bob Limper, Business Development Manager CIRCOR
A international manufacturer of scented plastic garbage luggage was in search of a substitute for using pre-scented plastic pellets. A serendipitous encounter at a tradeshow led them to a precision gear metering pump solution that gave them accuracy and consistency at the low move charges required, whereas additionally decreasing their prices and enhancing worker well being. Yearly savings are so excessive that the return on funding for the pump system could be measured in days.
Seeking another for pricey pre-scented plastic pellets
A global producer of scented plastic rubbish baggage was looking for an alternative to the use of pre-scented plastic pellets, which required a devoted silo for every of the 20 out there fragrances. The pellets are pneumatically conveyed to each silo from either tanker trucks or rail automobiles and the manufacturer was experiencing logistical issues related to maintaining the silos filled. They additionally needed to carry excessive prices for maintaining the inventory of the pre-scented pellets.
In Reliable , the closely concentrated scents had been inflicting well being concerns for the workers who complained of complications. To mitigate this issue, every extruder line was fitted with a vacuum exhaust hood to expel the fumes to the outside. On occasion, these emissions led to complaints from neighbors and citations from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The firm was looking for a way to make use of plain plastic pellets and apply scented oil directly to the plastic sheet instantly after the extrusion course of to cut back costs, logistical challenges, and power use. They had tried to build such a system in-house but had struggled to attain accuracy and consistency on the low move rates they required. They determined to seek a pump-based answer that could immediately spray fragrance on the warm melted sheet plastic as a result of the in-house answer couldn’t meet rigorous quality control standards requiring the spray-on scent to precisely match that of pre-scented pellets.
Finding a solution on a tradeshow ground
Design engineers from the plastic bag manufacturer attending the PackExpo present observed a working demonstration of precision gear metering pumps made by Zenith and requested application specialists if the pumps may be a match with their application. After amassing info on the appliance, an area manager for the pump manufacturer with intensive expertise in dosing and blending techniques visited the plant to get a firsthand view of present operations and gather further information.
Working with the pump manufacturer’s design group they developed a system answer utilizing a Zenith B-9000 Series rotary positive displacement pump particularly designed for single stream chemical obligation purposes. The pump features an accurate, repeatable, pulse free flow in a compact design ideal for dosing additives such as colours, flavors, and fragrances.
This kind of pump is defined as rotary as a end result of the drive shaft is rotated as in comparability with other forms of pumps utilizing a reciprocating motion and can additionally be thought of to be a optimistic displacement sort because the displaced quantity is constant and does not range.
Pumping motion is achieved by filling the gear enamel areas and transporting the fluid across the outer diameter of the gears. When the gear enamel mesh, the fluid is displaced and compelled to the outlet aspect of the pump. The flow price can only be adjusted by growing or reducing the pace at which the shaft is rotated. The pump chosen presents precision grinding and lapping processes that end in a precision metering instrument, producing precise, pulse-less, and repeatable fluid flow.
The pumps provide extremely tight operating clearances to minimize fluid slip. Manufacturing tolerances on many elements are to +/- 50 millionths of inch with surface finishes as smooth as four micro inches or higher. The pumps are provided with an AC “closed loop” motor velocity controller to maintain zero.1 p.c pump speed accuracy.
The Zenith 9000 collection pump is available in eleven sizes with capacities ranging from .003 to 300 GPH. Wetted elements are available in by way of hardened 440C sequence chrome steel, specialty handled 316 stainless steel, and high quality device steels similar to D2, M2, M4 and CPM-M4 to supply good corrosion and abrasion resistance.
The bag producer chosen a model with a magnetic drive (mag-drive) sealing option, which might eliminate shaft leakage of fluids, rising plant security and decreasing risky natural compound emissions. The use of a magnetic coupling also eliminates downtime due to mechanical seal failures and eliminates the need for buffer fluids.
New resolution reduces prices and provides uniform perfume distribution
The new Zenith pump system gave the scented bag manufacturer a steady, pulse free course of, which ensures equal and uniform fragrance distribution. By including the scent on to the luggage after leaving the extruder, the plastic bag manufacturer not only eradicated the necessity to have separate pellet silos for every scent, but additionally eliminated the necessity to vent the fumes that come from the pellets as they journey from the silos to the extruders.
The producer bought the primary system and after successful trials, ordered six extra methods. Over the past two years they’ve bought greater than 30 methods, with plans to order extra. The manufacturer can be interested in having Zenith conduct annual area calibrations of every system.
After two years of operation, the manufacturer estimates a yearly financial savings of roughly $480,000 per skid in operation. With 30 skids now running, the return on investment for each system purchase could be measured in weeks. To date, there have been no odor complaints for the reason that customer installed the Zenith methods
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