Case history (March 01, 2003)
By Kevin Peterson, Salina Vortex
Canadian General-Tower, Ltd. of Cambridge, Ontario, is a major supplier in North America of flexible polymer cover stocks, including vinyl, for a variety of markets. To maintain the efficiency of thei...
Canadian General-Tower, Ltd. of Cambridge, Ontario, is a major supplier in North America of flexible polymer cover stocks, including vinyl, for a variety of markets. To maintain the efficiency of their operation, they rely on suppliers like Jake Pedrosa of Pneu Tech Systems (Woodstock, ON). Jake keeps them posted on the latest innovations in material handling and component equipment. It’s a partnership that benefits both companies.
In the summer of 2002, Jake was visiting with Camelia (Cami) Encutu, a process engineer at Canadian General-Tower. Cami mentioned a problem they were having with two material handling valves used in the facility. The valves, flapper style diverters, were located under two metal detectors in a PVC compounding system. Because the valves sealed so poorly, material would continually leak through the valve into the off leg. The two tote boxes incorporated to “catch” the material rejected by the metal detectors were mostly filled up the leaking material instead. The area was a continual source of waste, mess and frustration as material had to be scrapped and additional labor and equipment had to be budgeted to move the totes around.
Jake explained the features and benefits of a new flapper diverter introduced in 2001 by Salina Vortex, a manufacturer of dry material handling valves.
The Seal Tite Gravity Diverter was designed by Salina Vortex to address the problems inherent with traditional flapper style diverter valves. The unique design channels material flow away from the leading edge of the flapper vane, has a removable access door and replaceable vane and shaft seal. These features addressed the problems Canadian General-Tower was experiencing.
Pneu-Tech installed two 8 in. Seal Tite Gravity Diverters in a straight-line configuration with 30 offset legs for Canadian General-Tower. The valves have been operating since September 2002 without any leakage. Cami says they really like the efficiency gained through the use of the new Salina Vortex valves.
Salina Vortex 785-825-7177
Pneu Tech Systems 519-537-7199