1000 tonnes of free cement!

1000 tonnes of 'free' cement is exactly the words used by one of my clients - Ricardo Collales, Assistant to the Maintenance Manager at the Ciementerie Nationale cement plant in Haiti, which is jointly owned by Holcim, Colombian Group Argos and local government.

He had massive problems with cement powder build up on the sides of his 6000 tonne silos and sought help from Primasonics International. We recommended the installation of a Model PAS - 75 Acoustic Cleaner to be mounted on top of each. This he did and a few months later I received the following e-mail:-

'Greetings from Haiti - for me it is a pleasure to communicate with you to inform you that because of the Primasonics Cleaners we have been able to withdraw an additional 1000 tonnes of cement which we could not do before we installed your acoustic cleaners - imagine 1000 tonnes of free cement!'

Here is a picture of the proud and happy Ricardo standing on top of a silo next to our PAS - 75 Acoustic Cleaner.

Hammer Rash

Hammer Rash - sounds like a serious medical condition doesn't it? All of us who have been involved in dry material flow and storage problems have seen this 'physical phenomenon' around the discharge section of silos, hoppers baghouse filter plants etc.

Although it creates more problems than it cures, it is understandable why it happens - a night shift plant operative finds that one material will not flow out of one of his blending silo so he resorts to his previous 'trick' of hitting the hopper section with hopefully a rubber hammer. However the hammer is missing so he uses the first available alternative - an iron bar - and proceeds to give the metal hopper section a good 'thrashing'.

It is really so easy to avoid having to resort to such a destructive action, simply by employing sound waves of a particular frequency into the material which ensures that it will always flow at maximum discharge rate without the need for any manual intervention. The picture shows clearly both the problem and the solution. This is one of several gypsum discharge silo hoppers which suffered quite extensive 'hammer rash' damage. The expensive solution was to empty all the silos, chop of the existing battered hoppers and replace with new - quite an expensive and time consuming solution. The much easier, cheaper and totally effective solution was to install a 420 Hz frequency acoustic cleaner. The result was that although the hopper was in really bad shape, the acoustic cleaner prevented any discharge blockage from occurring and maintained maximum flow rate.

Innovative, easy and effective solution to eliminate hopper plugging!

Safety First

Safety First - we often hear this term being quoted both within our business and private lives, especially as now a day everyone seems to want to sue every one else. With respect to silo cleaning, 'safety first' simply means - do not risk allowing manual entry into the silo in order to clean it. In my travels around the world, solving dry material build up and flow problems, I have unfortunately visited sites which had just experienced a fatality whilst engaged in manual cleaning of a silo.



Within this 'blog' site I hope to share with you my experiences and solutions to ensure that your plant process or storage facilities do not suffer from material build up and flow problems and most assuredly - prevent a fatality from ever occurring. Some of my forthcoming 'blogs' will be serious, some more lighthearted and humorous, I welcome your comments and experiences.