Twin Screw Conveyor for Leather Processing at Clariant UK.

Innovative Ajax Twin Screw Conveyor

An innovative twin screw feeder developed by solids handling equipment specialists Ajax Equipment is set to significantly boost Leather Process Chemical productivity at Clariant Chemicals, Selby plant.

The new twin screw conveyor replaces a reversible screw conveyor first installed by Ajax Equipment in the 1980s. It is used in the manufacture of a range of Leather Processing Products. The conveyor takes wet slurry cake from a belt filter and discharges it into either a dryer for subsequent packaging or a storage keg where it is used as an intermediate in another process. However with increasing demand for the intermediate, the existing reversible conveyor was causing a bottleneck as the flow of wet cake had to be disrupted to divert cake to the keg.

Working within the same space occupied by reversible screw conveyor, Ajax is installing a twin screw conveyor featuring two independent screws each driven by their own motor mounted at both ends of the conveyor. With a single inlet chute allowing wet cake to be fed into both screws, the two screws can either operate in the same direction allowing all the cake to be exclusively fed to either the dryer or a new packaging machine replacing the earlier storage keg.

Alternatively, with both screws operating simultaneously in opposite directions, Clariant is able to maintain continuous transfer of the product to the dryer while being able to convey cake to the packaging machine for subsequent processing when needed.

The new Ajax twin conveyor also gives Clariant an energy saving. Until now the company often had to use some of the dried product instead of the wet cake intermediate to ensure sufficient quantity to satisfy internal production demand.

“Ajax Equipment has come up with an elegant solution to our problem, said Stephen Pywell, process technologist, Clariant. “It will enable us to increase production of the dried product by up to 2 tonnes per day, while still maintaining production of the wet intermediate.”

For more information on AJAX's screw conveyors please visit our Screw Conveyor page or call AJAX on 44 (0)1204 386723.

New Uploads and Featured Pages