When it comes to drying large amounts of raw material, there are a number of options for manufacturers to choose from, depending on their budget, space and properties of the material being dried. Industrial dryers are often used to remove moisture from materials such as powders, foods and chemicals for the pharmaceutical, paper, pollution control, food and agricultural industries. If your company is in the market for a new industrial dryer, there are 5 main types for different applications, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Dryers that pass material through a large, revolving metal drum and heated by gas, liquid or solid fuel are commonly used in the chemical, food and mineral industries. Rotary dryers have low maintenance costs and allow vast amounts of material with differing particle sizes to dry at one time. However, because these dryers are powered by gas, moisture control is difficult and they often create fire hazards as a result of drying flammable materials. Because the drum is often quite large, these dryers often require a lot of space. [Continue Reading Article]

Everyone has had plenty of experiences dealing with electrostatic discharge—reaching out a hand to open the car door on a dry winter day and hesitating, because you know that zap is coming. Annoying isn’t it? Unfortunately, ESD can be a lot more harmful than that. Without proper prevention, it could damage a computer to the point of no return. The zap you felt when you opened the door was at least 2,500 volts of ESD, caused by the transfer of electrons from one surface (the door handle) to another (your hand). Charges as weak as 200 volts can severely damage your computer, and since they are below the threshold of human feeling, you might have no idea it’s happening. Catastrophic failure, damage to your computer that cannot be undone, is commonly due to ESD, and it can be direct or latent. Direct isn’t really a problem to anyone but manufacturers, since it is usually detected in initial testing. Latent catastrophic failure is what you should worry about. Low-voltage static charges may be slowly causing damage to your computer system, and may not show symptoms for weeks or even months. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, you’ve got a computer that won’t turn on and can’t be fixed. [Continue Reading Article]

If you’ve wondered, “What the heck are those yellow and red bumps I see on curb ramps?” you’re not alone. Those “bumps” are referred to as “detectable warnings” or “truncated domes” and are regulated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. As of July 26, 2001, detectable warnings must be used on sidewalks per federal ADA guidelines. The law applies to new construction or renovations after July 2001. Detectable warnings were devised to provide a tactile cue to visually impaired pedestrians that they are entering a potentially hazardous area, such as the edge of a train platform or a busy street. Detectable warnings must comply with the ADA “4.29 Detectable Warnings” guideline that specifies dimensions, spacing and other requirements. The ADA Accessibility Guidelines has since drafted a more detailed proposal that eventually will replace the original specifications. Although these guidelines (“R304 Detectable Warning Surfaces”) are not “official,” they have been accepted as the preferred detectable-warning standard in the marketplace. [Continue Reading Article]

German-based forklift truck manufacturer Jungheinrich AG will have no trouble meeting the stricter emission standards laid out by the EPA and federal legislation. On the contrary; this company is already poised as one of the country's leading manufacturers of powerful, 100% electric material handling lift trucks, and a recent distribution agreement with Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America (MCFA) will soon make Jungheinrich a household name in industrial material handling. Mitsubishi Caterpillar, including Cat and Mitsubishi lift truck brands, currently occupies more than 10% of the North American market for forklift trucks. Jungheinrich, which has a more modest 1.2% share in the market, will be benefiting from MCFA's larger share in an exclusive distribution deal which will close all of Jungheinrich's independent distribution and sales, including non-MCFA dealers and Jungheinrich's North American headquarters and distribution center in Richmond, Virginia. [Continue Reading Article]

Within the past 5 years or so, the concept of reducing emissions has been the automotive industry’s most popular issue. It’s all over their commercials, boasting fuel economy and environmental friendliness. Though less advertised, non-road diesel engines, including forklift trucks, are no exception. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working since 1996 on a 4-tiered program to greatly reduce emission pollutants and sulfur content in fuel. Program From 1996 until last year, non-road diesel engines have complied with lenient emission standards and still accounted for 44 percent of diesel particulate matter (PM) emissions and 12 percent of total nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, an excessively large amount of total emissions from mobile sources. So in January of 2008, the EPA put the 4th tier into effect. The new standards involve models built in 2008 and later and aim to reduce 90% of NOx and PM emissions, in comparison to unregulated engines. They are also reducing sulfur in fuel to 15-ppm. [Continue Reading Article]

Dynamic Air Inc., a major leader in the dense phase pneumatic conveying industry, is a specialist in the pneumatic conveying of dry, bulk solids. Applications range from food to poison, from light fumed silica to heavy powdered metals. However, all of these applications have one thing in common, the necessity to control the conveying velocity in order to control particle degradation, conveying pipe wear, minimize air consumption, or eliminate pipe line plugging. What is Pneumatic Conveying? Pneumatic conveying is nothing more than creating a pressure differential along a pipeline and moving a bulk material along with the air as the air moves towards the area of lower pressure. This can be done with a vacuum inducer, or with compressed air being injected into one end of or along the pipeline. Dilute Phase vs. Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveying The two most distinct categories of pneumatic conveying can be described as either low pressure (dilute phase) or high pressure (dense phase) systems. [Continue Reading Article]

This last April, British environmentalist and adventurer David de Rothschild set sail in a catamaran he had constructed entirely from recycled PET bottles. As a statement to the growing global problem of ocean pollution and the need for higher recycling standards, de Rothschild planned to sail to what Planet Green Bottle calls "Plastic Soup", a floating mass of plastic waste nearly the size of Texas suspended in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This British adventure-seeker may have found the most creative way yet to call attention to this pending environmental risk, but plastic engineers and manufacturers have been working towards a solution in more conventional ways for many years. Polyethylene terephthalate, or "PET", is a petroleum-based resin and may be broken down and recycled almost indefinitely. The addition of dies, fiberglass and other composite materials reduce PET's recyclability, but the majority of PET materials, such as the beverage bottles out of which Mr. de Rothschild constructed his boat, are recycled at a cost relative or lower than that of purchasing virgin materials. Still, many water bottles, soda bottles and other beverage containers never make it to the recycling bin, ending up in landfills, or worse: the Pacific's Plastic Soup. [Continue Reading Article]

To be sure, outsourcing is not always the best option. The US manufacturing industry's obsession with outsourcing over the last several decades has led to some major economic problems here at home, although it was very profitable to the companies shipping their manufacturing overseas at the time. Nevertheless, manufacturers and service providers specialize for a reason, and companies can often benefit by relying someone else's expertise to perform certain processes. Your company may be the absolute best when it comes to manufacturing urethane casters, but affordably fitting those casters on a shelf in a space-efficient, attractive, easy-to-open package is probably not your strongest suit - unless you're a contract packaging provider. While contract packaging certainly isn't for everyone (environmental test chamber manufacturers, we're looking at you), it can provide huge benefits for manufacturers tied to consumer industries. Here are a few benefits other manufacturers have found: [Continue Reading Article]

“Pollution Control can be very expensive!” you may say. And you’d be right. It can be. With ever increasing pressure to reduce emissions of gaseous pollution (and a company’s carbon footprint), many are choosing to install fume abatement systems on process exhausts where pollutants are present. In fact, regulations require pollution control equipment for many industries. The popularity of the Thermal Oxidization process for pollution control is, for the time being, high enough that it is considered the norm. Some companies have to endure the cost of cleaning exhausts for the environment. That is the responsibility element companies have to get used to. But it doesn’t have to be all bad news. I would bring to your attention several possibilities of secondary Heat Recovery worthy of your consideration. Process exhaust Heat Recovery can offer exceptional payback. The right industrial-grade air to air heat exchanger, correctly designed, engineered and built for your application, can allow you to reduce negative impact on the environment and your operational energy costs – dramatically. For instance: If you have a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) abatement system you know the final outgoing RTO exhaust temperature is higher than the incoming process air temperature. If, for example, you have 200°F entering the RTO from your process, the RTO exhaust could be as high as 400°F – even higher if the bypass is open. When RTOs are sold with high thermal efficiency expectations, companies often overlook the energy recovery potential of the RTO application. [Continue Reading Article]

As the recession has worn on, businesspeople have become increasingly skeptical of "good" news. Most have not been willing to trust in occasional spikes in the manufacturing index or consumer market at the cost of precious dollars and scarce optimism - and understandably. "[I]s it insane to hold off on optimism when you're not sure whether another customer could bite the dust?" asks bag manufacturer Kevin Kelly in a May Newsweek Web Exclusive. The economy can do a lot in two months, however, and the early signs and tentative predictions of improvement that were made earlier this spring have held steady. Economic reports from July confirm that although the job market probably won't bottom out until mid 2010, the recession is indeed coming to a close. The ISM manufacturing index for July indicates manufacturing may be out of the red by the end of the month: July's index was 48.9, a full 5 points up from June and 1.1 points away from indicating positive economic growth. Confirming this market trend is a recent Reuters survey finding "large US industrial manufacturers are far more optimistic about domestic and global economics than they were three months ago". 43% of respondents indicated they were optimistic about this upcoming year's economy, a huge rise since last quarter's poll. More respondents also indicated plans for new hires, new investments and business expansions than in previous recession polls. A large number of manufacturing industries saw positive growth last month, among which were mineral products, paper and printing products, transportation equipment and appliances. [Continue Reading Article]

Explosions in dust collectors Dust explosions are possible whenever the process produces combustible dusts. Not all combustible dusts will produce explosions. For instance, even combustible dusts may not have the characteristics to produce an explosion. A coarse combustible dust such as coal may burn well but not explode depending on how fine the dust is. To produce a conflagration the dust must have a sufficient ratio of surface area to weight to sustain the rapid oxidation for creating and sustaining an explosion. When a dust can sustain an explosion, the dust concentration must be within the explosive limits. These are often defined as: L.E.L. (Lower Explosive Limit): Below this level of concentration, an explosion will not occur and propagate itself. There is not enough concentration of fuel to allow the flame front to grow. A typical range of values would be 20-30 grains/ cubic foot. U.E.L. (Upper Explosive Limit): Above this limit the concentration of dust is so high that there is insufficient oxygen to oxidize the fuel and the unburned fuel stops the spread of the flame front. Ignition of the dust depends on several factors (1) Chemical Composition (2) Shape and fineness, briefly described above. (3) Dust distribution in the gas stream or atmosphere (4) Concentration of oxygen in the gas stream. (5) Initial temperature and pressure of the gas. (6) Energy level available to detonate the explosion Intensity of the explosion is dependent on the rate of pressure rise and maximum pressure developed. Factory Mutual ran lab tests to determine these values and are contained in their publications. It must be pointed out these tests and values are run with a spherical test chamber with power ignition source in the center of the sphere. These numbers are relatively high when referring to explosions in a dust collector housing, because the bags usually obstruct the expansion of the explosive flame front. [Continue Reading Article]