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 producer of scented plastic rubbish luggage was on the lookout for an alternative to the use of 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 on the low flow rates required, while also lowering their costs and improving worker health. Yearly financial savings are so high that the return on investment for the pump system can be measured in days.
Seeking another for expensive pre-scented plastic pellets
A international producer of scented plastic garbage luggage was in search of an different to the utilization of pre-scented plastic pellets, which required a dedicated silo for every of the 20 out there fragrances. The pellets are pneumatically conveyed to every silo from both tanker vehicles or rail automobiles and the manufacturer was experiencing logistical issues related to preserving the silos crammed. They also needed to carry high costs for sustaining the inventory of the pre-scented pellets.
In addition, the heavily concentrated scents had been causing health concerns for the workers who complained of complications. To mitigate this problem, 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 company was in search of a way to use plain plastic pellets and apply scented oil directly to the plastic sheet immediately after the extrusion process to scale back prices, logistical challenges, and energy use. They had tried to construct such a system in-house however had struggled to realize accuracy and consistency at the low flow rates they required. They decided to hunt a pump-based answer that could immediately spray fragrance on the warm melted sheet plastic as a end result of the in-house solution couldn’t meet rigorous quality control requirements requiring the spray-on scent to precisely match that of pre-scented pellets.
Finding an answer on a tradeshow flooring
Design engineers from the plastic bag producer attending the PackExpo present observed a working demonstration of precision gear metering pumps made by Zenith and requested software specialists if the pumps could be a fit with their application. After collecting information on the applying, an space supervisor for the pump manufacturer with intensive expertise in dosing and blending systems visited the plant to get a firsthand view of current operations and collect further information.
Working with the pump manufacturer’s design group they developed a system resolution using a Zenith B-9000 Series rotary constructive displacement pump specifically designed for single stream chemical duty functions. The pump options an correct, repeatable, pulse free circulate in a compact design ideal for dosing additives corresponding to colors, flavors, and fragrances.
This kind of pump is defined as rotary as a result of the drive shaft is rotated as compared to different types of pumps utilizing a reciprocating movement and can additionally be thought of to be a constructive displacement kind as a outcome of the displaced quantity is constant and doesn’t vary.
Pumping action is achieved by filling the gear enamel areas and transporting the fluid across the outer diameter of the gears. When the gear teeth mesh, the fluid is displaced and forced to the outlet side of the pump. The circulate price can only be adjusted by rising or reducing the pace at which the shaft is rotated. The pump selected presents precision grinding and lapping processes that result in a precision metering instrument, producing exact, pulse-less, and repeatable fluid move.
The pumps provide extraordinarily tight operating clearances to reduce fluid slip. Manufacturing tolerances on many parts are to +/- 50 millionths of inch with surface finishes as clean as four micro inches or higher. The pumps are provided with an AC “closed loop” motor speed controller to keep up zero.1 percent pump pace accuracy.
The Zenith 9000 series pump is on the market in eleven sizes with capacities starting from .003 to 300 GPH. Wetted components can be found in via hardened 440C series stainless-steel, specialty handled 316 stainless-steel, and high quality device steels corresponding to D2, M2, M4 and CPM-M4 to provide good corrosion and abrasion resistance.
The bag producer chosen a model with a magnetic drive (mag-drive) sealing option, which might get rid of shaft leakage of fluids, rising plant security and decreasing unstable organic compound emissions. The use of a magnetic coupling also eliminates downtime due to mechanical seal failures and eliminates the necessity for buffer fluids.
New resolution reduces prices and provides uniform fragrance distribution
The new Zenith pump system gave the scented bag manufacturer a continuous, pulse free process, which ensures equal and uniform fragrance distribution. By including the scent directly to the baggage after leaving the extruder, the plastic bag manufacturer not only eliminated the necessity to have separate pellet silos for each scent, but in addition eliminated the necessity to vent the fumes that come from the pellets as they journey from the silos to the extruders.
The manufacturer purchased the primary system and after successful trials, ordered six extra methods. Over the past two years they’ve purchased greater than 30 techniques, with plans to order extra. The producer can additionally be thinking about having Zenith conduct annual area calibrations of each system.
After two years of operation, the manufacturer estimates a yearly savings of roughly $480,000 per skid in operation. With 30 skids now running, the return on funding for each system purchase could be measured in weeks. To spmk700 , there have been no odor complaints since the buyer installed the Zenith systems
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