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MINExpo draws Record Crowds, Exhibitors |
September 26, 2008 |
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Posted by Don Dunnington at 08:10 PM | Comments (0) |
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I just returned from MINExpo in Las Vegas where a record 36,000 visitors and 1,300 exhibitors spent three days buying and selling the equipment that digs and processes the raw materials that feed our bulk materials industries. Attendance was up more than 50 percent over the previous show and exhibit space at 600,000 sq. ft. was up 30 percent.
This is an industry of big machines and huge capital investments, and MINExpo, which like the Olympics occurs just once every four years, brings an impressive array of equipment under one roof. Caterpillar set the mark as biggest of the big in terms of booth size and probably for the size of their machines on display here. Their big 797F and 795F AC mining trucks, standing as tall as three story houses, drew the most attention and more photographers than the fabled Las Vegas strip.
Lines of visitors snaked up the stairs to sit in the driver's seats. On a mezzanine connecting the stairs to one of the truck cabs, two training simulators let visitors test their skills at driving these monsters.
There were quite a few material handling equipment manufacturers at the show. Next to the Caterpillar booth, Gundlach was showing its 2050S Roll Crusher. Together with Gundlach's Cage Paktor, these machines have played an important role in helping a number of Canadian mines meet the booming demand for potash. Canada's remarkable growth in potash production has been driven by agriculture's increased demand for fertilizer to feed the frenzy for biofuels in markets around the world.
The flooding of a major Russian mine pushed demand for Canadian potash even higher. Russia, Canada and Belarus account for 85 percent of known potash reserves. Canada alone has half of all reserves. Russia had been the major supplier of China, and the Russian mine closing came at a time when China's demand for fertilizer was growing at more than 12 percent per year. Flooding is common problem for potash mines, and Russian potash mining is expected to return soon, giving equipment makers an opportunity for another surge in orders from the potash industry.
Coal has seen a resurgence with today's growing energy demands, and coal mining had a major presence at the show. Pennsylvania Crusher showed its Mountaineer Sizer. The Mountaineer Sizer is designed for primary or secondary sizing of coals, industrial minerals, and ores with minimum fines generation.
Penn Crusher shared exhibit space with its sister company Jeffrey Rader, which showed its NF Electromechanical Vibrating Feeder. This feeder is designed specifically for the material handling needs of the coal industry, so that burden doesn't dampen vibration and actually boosts performance. These sub-resonant tuning characteristics assure efficient material transfer, promote quieter operation, and reduce energy and maintenance costs.
Eriez marketing communications manager Keith Jones told me the top attraction at their booth was their magnetic separator for the coal industry and minerals processing. Eriez Suspended Electromagnets (SE) remove damaging tramp iron from materials conveyed in heavy burden depths on flat conveyors or chutes. They automatically remove tramp iron from heavy product flows such as coal or rock being conveyed on belts, vibratory feeders or chutes. When designed with a continuously rotating belt, these magnets are self-cleaning.
Series 6000 Suspended Permanent (SP) Magnets automatically remove large amounts of ferrous from nonferrous materials conveyed in heavy burden depths, on almost any type of conveyor or chute. These magnets require no power source, operate practically maintenance free, offer uninterrupted magnetic protection and can be installed quickly and easily.
Jones said the SP Magnets from Eriez offer a level of performance that was previously available only with electro magnets. Permanent mag¬nets designed just a few years ago don't achieve near the performance of this new line, he said.
Don Dunnington
Moderator
Remembering an "Ike" We Liked and the Railroads Crossing Kansas that Helped Shape Our Process Industries |
September 18, 2008 |
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Posted by Don Dunnington at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) |
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Hurricane Ike's recent unwelcome visit to our Gulf Coast calls to mind a friendlier "Ike," Dwight David Eisenhower, who was widely admired in the U.S. and around the world for his leadership in WWII and then as a U.S. President. I recently spent a few moments outside his boyhood home in Abilene, Kansas.
As soon as we completed our review of the new Premier Pneumatics website at their home office in Salina, Kansas, I got on the road for a three hour drive to Kansas City, from where I would fly home the next morning. About 30 minutes into my drive on I-70, I came to the exit for Abilene and a sign pointing to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.
It was 6:30, and I figured the library would be closed (it was). But I got this picture of Eisenhower's boyhood home. In the background to the left of the house you may be able to see railcars (shown larger here).
The Eisenhower grounds cover several acres, but in Kansas you're seldom far from train tracks. Premier got its start in pneumatic conveying with its railcar loaders and unloaders. From loading and unloading railcars, it was a short hop inside the factories to vacuum and pressure conveying solutions for a wide range of applications for the plastics, plastics compounding, food, pharmaceutical and chemical process industries.
For a few boom years Abilene intersected the western terminus of the Kansas Pacific (now Union Pacific) railroad and the end point of the famous Chisholm Trail. From 1867 to 1872, cowboys drove some three million head of cattle along this 1,000 mile trail from Texas to Abilene, where they were shipped to eastern markets. Until lawmen like Wild Bill Hickok tamed the town, Abilene was known as the wildest town in the Wild West.
From trails to railroads and highways the movement of food and bulk materials across the country played a large role in the colorful history of Kansas. And material handling continues as a major presence among the businesses and industries that came out of Kansas.
Today Premier Pneumatics is a global provider of pneumatic conveying systems. Their bulk unloading and storage systems are used in truck and railcar loading and unloading.
Premier's development of complex vacuum and pressure conveying systems has lead to an incredible array of pneumatic conveying components from their popular airlock rotary valves to vacuum sequencing receivers, self-contained loaders, bin vents, diverter valves, and storage tanks.
And it all started with a railroad that crossed Kansas.
Don Dunnington
Moderator
Double Headed Penny |
September 14, 2008 |
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Posted by Joseph Taylor at 06:28 PM | Comments (0) |
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The advice of meeting for the September gathering of the Australian Institute of Packaging [AIP] said that the theme was Packaging and Food Science & Technology – The two sides of the coin; - where a representative from the AIP will talk about important things concerning packaging and technology relevant to a food science technologist, and this will be complemented by an Australian Food Science and Technology [AIFST] representative talking about important things about food science and technology relevant to a food packaging person.
The audience comprised of members from both AIP and AIFST and totaled in the high fifties with a small majority in favor of AIFST, but that would be expected as during the presentations we learned that food is the largest sector in manufacturing requiring packaging. But having heard about both sides of the coin it would be fair to say that it is more of a “double headed penny” as technologists working in food science or packaging both need to checklist many of the exact same things.
The meeting was the annual joint effort of the two groups when presenters from within the memberships stood before their peers and provided salient indicators of how to develop the optimum food package. The coin had been tossed earlier and Ralph Moyle, the current Victorian AIP Chairperson and Director Southern Electorate had first spin.
Ralph’s presentation covered many issues but was underpinned by an early statement “both must become involved in the whole supply chain”. He went onto give definitions of packaging which can be encapsulated using the same word. Having encapsulated food in what is known as the primary pack it then enters the supply chain and needs secondary and tertiary packing to be available for the consumer. An example would be canned soup in a shelf ready fiberboard shipper on a shrink wrapped pallet.
Interestingly it occurred whilst listening to the speakers that food can have a further critical distribution channel within the domestic environment. A frypan will be removed from its package and the chain ends, but bacon and eggs for the frypan has extended links for they have to be stored and in some cases resealed, but have to retain the integrity of the package that came from original production.
Food is no different than any other product when designing a package but is completely different in its needs as spoilage can lead to serious side effects, even death! But in the most competitive of markets the packaging technologist will be bombarded by marketing demands to provide differences but retain brand image. Overarching any of these issues will be the legal and environmental requirements such as labeling and recyclability.
Ralph Moyle’s clearest message was to have a most comprehensive check list to connect the food and the package which he succinctly put as “what is the reason”! The other side of the coin seemed reason enough to hand the microphone over to Maurice Pattison, MAIFST a consulting food technologist with a diverse food industry background.
Between the presenters time out was called and fellowship certificates were presented to two AIP members Greg Roberts and Mike Morgan both of whom had been nominated and elevated to Fellow at the recent Annual General Meeting of AIP.
The linchpin of Maurice Pattison’s desideration was that people put food inside their bodies and there is an increased emphasis on diet and health with safety being paramount. He talked about hazard analysis and critical control points with Protection, Preservation and Presentation being the three most important aspects of a food package.
In a tutorial on food science we were taken into the mysteries of spoilage and microbiological impacts on food improperly packaged. Ironclad hygiene and sanitation protocols are paramount in food processing and packaging and there are many variations on the theme. For instance food packaged for a supermarket dairy case commonly known as chilled is more exacting than that destined for the frozen food cabinets, yet the product can be the same. [Consider yogurt which can be found in either part of the Supermarket] Both of these packages are of course different to those “foodies” call shelf stable such as canned, bottled or cartooned staples like fruit, sauce and breakfast cereals.
We learnt that it is important not to bracket all seemingly similar foods or foods of a generic group, such as cheeses, together and believe that they all have similar potential for food safety implications, because this is not always the case.
Under HACCP [hazard analysis and critical control points] protocols operating in the food industry a company can declare “approved suppliers” which can give some confidence in product delivery but complacency could lead to disaster.
The requirements of a food package are really from production to plate and even at point of sale things like ultra-violet light and incorrect shelf placement can be a problem. A major predicament is failure in integrity of co lour in brands for it is often the brand image that determines the market placement of food products. labeling got a seeing to but Maurice succinctly summed up labeling with the advice “Do what you say on your label before you put it on your label”.
He is a strong advocate for project management of new packages and face to face communication is still his preferred choice although emails are becoming the main communication stream.
Both presenters delivered the same message which was reminding of an advertisement that claimed “oils is not oils”. Food is not food and packages are not packages…each has a life of its own and ignoring the requirements of the product could cost a life.
The moderator for the evening Robin Tuckerman FAIP thanked Ralph and Maurice but the meeting continued for sometime afterwards as delegates discussed the messages.
AIP in Victoria is supported by the Australian Industry Group through the Victorian Government Industry Skills Adviser initiative.
by Michael B Halley FAIP
http://www.aipack.com.au/
