Powder and Bulk Weblog

8 Seminars on Material Handling Now Available in Online Training for Engineers

Don Dunnington — 2010-03-07T18:38:16-05:00

Material handling expert and popular Ask Joe! columnist Joe Marinelli recently completed his eighth video in the lecture series Bulk Solids Handling, which can be viewed on this website at the Online Training Center.

The seminars include downloadable class notes and a self administered quiz with answer sheet. The seven-day subscription allows the purchaser to watch and review a video class as many times as needed. Classes last about 50 minutes and can be viewed online for just $39 US for a seven day subscription, a real bargain considering what most online training classes and webinars of this quality cost.

I expected that cost would be the main motivator for the growing trend in online professional training. Likely recession-driven cuts in travel and training budgets have stimulated some growth in online training, but I learned that speed and the convenience of 24/7availability seem to be the leading factors.

"The ability to get fast access to the information you need and view it on your own schedule have been a huge benefit to engineers who have taken the courses, Powder and Bulk Dot Com publisher Joe Taylor told me. "One of the best examples was an email I got just a few weeks ago from an engineer in Europe. He went to our Online Training Center to get a crash course on the options available to solve a particular bulk material flow problem and prepare himself for a presentation to management the next day."

Joe said this example of "just-in-time training" has emerged as one of the more compelling benefits of professional online training. He said lecturers are available to answer questions via email, phone and fax. "Those who attend our classes can pause the video at any time to fire off a question to us," Joe said. "Some really productive dialog has resulted." More seminars are in production. They will feature other leading industry experts and cover a wide variety of process industry operations. Current classes include:

Lecture 1: Flow Problems - Their effects and flow patterns

Lecture 2: Design principles for reliable flow - wall friction, flow functions, bin design parameters

Lecture 3: Feeders, both volumetric and gravimetric - volumetric screws, belts, rotary valves, plus gravimetric & loss-in-weight feeders

Lecture 4: Measuring bulk solids flow properties - shear testing, variables that affect properties

Lecture 5: Particle segregation - segregation mechanisms, solutions to common problems

Lecture 6: Flow aid devices - assistance to gravity flow, air blasters, vibration & fluidization techniques

Lecture 7: Hopper retrofits to existing systems - cones vs. wedges, hopper liners & special inserts

Lecture 8: Design examples - determining hopper geometries using the Jenike approach

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

More Fabulous Things (Including Industrial Machines) Are on the Way

Don Dunnington — 2010-01-28T17:23:26-05:00

This week, two possibly world-changing launches took place: On Tuesday Seth Godin introduced his latest book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? The next day Apple introduced the iPad.

Most observers instantly declared both fabulous, though a few found fault with some iPad details. You’d have to be on an extended trip to another planet to miss the news of Apple’s iPad, the long-anticipated tablet computer that may do to book, magazine and newspaper publishing what iTunes did to the music business.

The buzz on Seth’s new book is nearly as intense in the blogging/marketing world he inhabits, but the news may have missed some in the industrial world.

Seth Godin is a prolific writer with ten books and one of the longest-running, most-read and most influential blogs of all time. Many are already declaring his book Linchpin the most important book Godin has written, that it will be life changing for those who read it and world changing for the works that ensue.

This post is not a book review, or a review of Apple’s latest cool technology. It’s an alert. It’s a sign of new possibilities in the midst of all our angst over economies and policies and things that may blow up with little or no warning and we’re standing too close.

This week Steve Jobs and Apple demonstrated once again that we can still invent cool tools that are fun to use, and in the process transform whole industries. And this week Seth Godin introduced us to a Manifesto of Fabulous: a guide, a map and an energizer for how each one of us, individually and collectively can make our own fabulous things.

You can find a hint of what was to come in his new book in this brief post from his blog dated November 8, 2009. It’s titled simply "Fabulous"

This is so cool: because we only look at things we want to look at, only talk about things worth talking about, the amount of fabulous in the world continues to rise exponentially.

Even though we're at the tail end of the great recession, think about all the cool stuff in your life. Not just stuff you can buy, but experiences, works of art, innovations of all kinds... the bar has been raised for what you need to do to be noticed, and the market is responding.

Not only do I notice more fabulous, but it sure seems as though the creators of it are more engaged, dedicated and yes, joyful, than I can remember. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it. You can't say, "but I need to make a fortune instead," because that's not happening right now. So you might as well join the people who can say, "I love doing this."

Fabulous Industrial Machines
There’s a lot of talk of our transformation from an Industrial Age to a Digital Age. In this post-industrial era, some suppose there’s little change or innovation to be found when it comes to engineering industrial equipment. Yet for those who bother to look there’s a wealth of innovation—of fabulous people designing and building fabulous equipment:

I’ve seen fabulous digital weighing technologies designed specifically for process control. These Smart Force Transducers are developed and manufactured in Niederlenz, Switzerland, and they are just one example of how digital instruments are applied in industrial equipment.
In an article on how innovation turbo-charges industrial companies I profiled Jim Foley in Pitman, NJ, who headed the team that developed a new material flow aid for gravimetric feeders.
Ted Gentile, International Sales Manager at Jeffrey Rader Corporation, wrote how innovative biomass feed systems are gaining global acceptance in helping industries tap into this alternative fuel source.
Mike Hamby, Vice President Sales & Service – NAFTA, at Gundlach Equipment Corporation wrote how a fanatical adherence to maintenance-friendly design principles takes much of the labor, cost and pain out of maintaining their roll crushers and cage mills in the field.

In every one of these examples you’ll find people who reached beyond the common to achieve results that set a new standard in industrial equipment. And in every example, there are users around the globe, who when they encounter one of these machines in the field, are saying, "fabulous." Those who buy and read Linchpin may find themselves among those riding at the top of the growing wave of fabulous that Godin sees coming.

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

Essentials of Modern Measurements ---- Book Review

Joe Lewis — 2010-01-27T10:27:05-05:00

“Essentials of Modern Measurements and Final Elements in the Process Industry” is a new book assembled by author Gregory K. McMillan, with a host of contributing writers. I first became aware of this new book from a post at ControlGlobal.com, one of the leading industry news and editorial sites on Internet. I was intrigued by the fact that someone took the time to put a new book together that was about process MEASUREMENT and not control automation. I remember GIGO (garbage-in, garbage-out) and still place a strong priority on measurement technologies rather than the control system. In the end, both are necessary but it is my opinion that many within the Measurement, Control and Automation industry seem to have forgotten about the process measurements and their importance.

I have completed much of the Level Measurement section, Section 5, which begins on page 229 and continues through 273. I have a few observations and constructive comments regarding this section of the book:

MEASURING SOLIDS LEVEL IS ABSENT. This book is definitely well written. My hat is off to the writers of this section on Level Measurement. They and the editor(s) did a fine job in writing the material. The illustrations are also well done. Bravo! However, there is a glaring absence of even a mention of level measurement of powders and bulk solids, which can be just as complex or more complex than liquid level measurements. I view this as a deficit in the book and feel a few pages could have and should have been devoted to this topic. A White Paper on the subject of continuous level and inventory measurement of powders and bulk solids may serve to fill the gap.

ABSENCE OF POINT LEVEL SENSING. Well I guess some folks don’t consider point level “level measurement” and in the strictest possible sense of the phrase it is arguable. However, even third-party market research firms such as Venture development Corporation include point level with continuous level when assessing the Process Level market. This subject should have been included, especially given the introduction of several point level products from a variety of companies rated for SIL-2 use, such as this unit from Magnetrol. I also point to the recent recommendation by the board that reviewed and assessed the aftermath of the Buncefield accident late in 2005. One of the conclusions stated that the failure of the inventory measurement sensor system and the absence of a separate overfill detection and prevention system may have been contributing factors to the accident. Point level sensors have a place within the “level measurement” arena.

FOCUS ON DP, RADAR AND ULTRASONIC. I do agree that these are very important technologies. I also concur that Radar, whether in its contact guided wave form or non-contact form, is the fastest growing technology for level measurement. DP and Ultrasonic also are large segments and heavily used. However, the absence of any discussion about Magnetosrtictive technology, Displacers and only a limited discussion on RF Admittance capacitance type sensors was disappointing, and those are for liquid apps. In addition, the category of smart weight & cable inventory systems, like all else for solids, was absent as well.

I definitely recommend this book as one of the better reference books available. However, I do feel and wished the above deficiencies would have been corrected before publishing.

Joe Lewis
BlueLevel Technologies, Inc.
www.bluelevetechnologies.com
joe@blueleveltechnologies.com

Boost Your Brain Power by Reading this Blog

Don Dunnington — 2009-12-08T14:43:03-05:00

Web surfing may be improving your mind in more ways than you expected. UCLA scientists have announced results of a study in which they found, according to the University's Rachel Champeau, "middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web."

The findings were presented at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. According to Champeau, "Research has shown that mental stimulation similar to that which occurs in individuals who frequently use the Internet may affect the efficiency of cognitive processing and alter the way the brain encodes new information."

While the study focused on an older population, the researchers hope to address the impact of the Internet on younger individuals in future studies. Their goal is to identify aspects of online searching that generate the greatest levels of brain activation.

In this latest study 24 "neurologically normal volunteers" were selected between the ages of 55 and 78. Prior to the study, half the participants used the Internet daily, while the other half had very little experience. Age, educational level and gender were similar among all participants.

Study participants performed Web searches while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which recorded subtle brain-circuitry changes experienced while browsing. After the initial brain scan, participants went home and conducted Internet searches one hour a day for a total of seven days over a two-week period.

In the first scan, participants with little Internet experience demonstrated brain activity in regions controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities. A second brain scan of the same participants, after they had accomplished their Internet searches at home, demonstrated activation of these same regions, plus additional areas of the brain important for working memory and decision-making.

Researchers concluded that, "after Internet training at home, participants with minimal online experience displayed brain activation patterns very similar to those seen in the group of savvy Internet users — after just a brief period of time."

Prior research by the UCLA group found online search activity resulted in more than a twofold increase in brain activation for those with prior browsing knowledge, compared with those with little Internet experience. If you've been lagging in your own Internet searching, there's still hope: The new UCLA research suggests it may take just a few days for those with minimal experience to match the activity levels of those with years of experience. If you have a co-worker or supervisor who seems to be falling behind in their Internet use, you might do their brains a favor by forwarding this article to them!

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

How Innovation Turbo-Charges Your Company

Don Dunnington — 2009-11-06T13:48:26-05:00

In "3 Tips for Becoming an Energizing Engineer" I discussed Rosabeth Moss Kanter's take on how the best leaders lead with positive energy. I recently came across research that suggests creativity and innovation may be an organization's most important source of positive energy.

Harvard Business Review contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer posted this interview "How Do Innovators Think? " with Professors Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen. In the Q&A interview the professors discuss the results of a six-year study in which they surveyed 3,000 creative executives and conducted an additional 500 individual interviews to discover how "Innovators' DNA" works.

The study identified five "discovery skills" that distinguish innovative leaders from all the rest:

Associating: "a cognitive skill that allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas."
Questioning: "an ability to ask 'what if', 'why', and 'why not' questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture."
Observation: "the ability to closely observe details, particularly the details of people's behavior."
Experimentation: innovators "are always trying on new experiences and exploring new worlds."
Networking: innovative leaders "are really good at networking with smart people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can learn"

I think one of the profound discoveries the professors made was that more people possess these skills than we recognize. Professor Dyer said, "We think there are far more discovery driven people in companies than anyone realizes. We've found that 15% of executives are deeply innovative, meaning they've invented a new product or started an innovative venture. But the problem is that even the most creative people are often careful about asking questions for fear of looking stupid, or because they know the organization won't value it."

We Need to Celebrate Invention and Innovation
One of the unanticipated satisfactions I discovered in moving from political Washington to industrial South Jersey was finding my office across the hall from K-Tron's R&D department. You don't have to be a technology junkie to feel the positive energy coming from a creative group of engineers like this. K-Tron is a company where a lot of its positive energy has started with invention. In fact, the company wouldn't exist as it does today if it hadn't introduced the world's first digital weigh belt feeder in 1972.

I asked my long-time office neighbor Jim Foley to describe his process of discovery as he spearheaded one of the latest innovations to come out of the K-Tron R&D department, the new Acti-Flow material flow aid for gravimetric feeders. Getting cohesive or other difficult materials to flow from a hopper is an age-old problem for all process industries. The consequences of bridging or ratholing are especially costly in continuous feeding applications where reduced or interrupted flow can degrade product quality and even halt the process.

Before Acti-Flow, mechanical agitation provided the most reliable way to deal with material that didn't easily flow from a loss-in-weight feeder hopper. Mechanical agitation works but needs secondary motors, gear boxes, added headroom, and presents additional cleaning challenges. These downsides led Foley and his staff to ask if there is a better way.

"Vibrating the hopper is another option everyone's known about for a long time," Foley explained. "We know vibration is good. The problem is that too much vibration is bad. It compacts the material and actually promotes bridging and ratholing. Since constant vibration created more trouble than it solved, the best you could do with it was wait for a mass flow alarm and then turn on the vibrator. "

Making Smart Vibrations
It's a fascinating story, which I'll save for another time, of how Foley and his R&D engineers in Pitman, NJ and Niederlenz, Switzerland took a completely fresh look at all the ways vibration might be employed to make difficult material flow. There were a number of breakthroughs the team discovered.

The most important innovation, and the one that has lead to a pending patent, was the idea that the loss-in-weight controller could control and fine-tune how the vibrator (or any other device) interacts with the feeding system. "It's only because our loss-in-weight algorithm is so smart," Foley said, "that we can make vibration work with us--not against us."

As a result of having a smart controller to manage the vibration, Acti-Flow is able to vibrate continuously at a low-level, optimum amplitude and frequency that prevents bridging and ratholing. "The controller changes the amplitude all the time," Foley said "When material is moving well it runs at the lowest possible level of vibration." If the controller senses a change, it adjusts the vibration right away before it becomes a problem.

"That's the beauty of it," Foley said. "It's a preventive strike: it lets you act, not react. "

Innovation Gives Life to Organizations
Invention and innovation keep a company engaged with its customers. It gives employees renewed purpose. It keeps sales people excited about their products and services. It gives existing customers and potential new customers confidence that they're dealing with a company that keeps getting better.

If it's a really cool design, or a striking innovation, invention gives us pleasure in simply perceiving the thing itself. Finally, invention gives us all hope in the future.

The Personal Innovation Imperative
You don't have to be an R&D engineer to be an inventor. You don't have to work for an engineering-oriented company to need invention. The truth is, in a global networked world where continuous innovation is sweeping across all industries, all the time, we all have to be innovators. The most important innovation we have to work on is ourselves.

What are you doing to reinvent yourself today?

3 Tips for Becoming an Energizing Engineer

Don Dunnington — 2009-09-30T09:30:30-05:00

It's not just the Energizer Bunny that keeps things going with its never-quit energy. Harvard's business professor and chronicler of leadership and innovation, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, has written "Three Tips for Becoming an Energizer" for the Harvard Business Blog.

This short article on leadership and personal effectiveness is aimed at organization leaders, but the benefits of positive energy apply equally to anyone who has any role on any group or team. That just about covers all of us, and I think it applies particularly well to those on engineering teams. Kanter writes:

"Some people become leaders no matter what their chosen path because their positive energy is so uplifting. Even in tough times, they always find a way. They seem to live life on their own terms even when having to comply with someone else's requirements…. Their energy makes them magnets attracting other people…. [Energy] is a form of power available to anyone in any circumstances. While inspiration is a long-term proposition, energy is necessary on a daily basis, just to keep going."

Kanter cites three key characteristics of people who are energizers:

1. A relentless focus on the bright side. "Energizers find the positive and run with it," she writes.

I don't think it's possible to be a creative pessimist. When I see engineers create new solutions to material handling problems, whether it's a whole new concept in feeder technology or a new take on an old problem such as inducing better material flow from a material that doesn't want to flow, I find a creative energy and excitement in the process that flows through the entire organization.

2. Redefining negatives as positives. Kanter writes, "Energizers are can-do people. They do not like to stay in negative territory, even when there are things that are genuinely depressing…. 'Positive thinking' and 'counting blessings' can sound like naïve cliches. But energizers are not fools…. Studies show that optimists are more likely to listen to negative information than pessimists, because they think they can do something about it."

Gundlach's Mike Hamby wrote an article recently on this blog about how the crusher company's founder turned his late night, rain-soaked experience repairing the company's first roll crushers into a commitment to easy-maintenance crusher design. More than 85 years later, every Gundlach crusher continues to be designed with easy maintenance in mind, saving customers countless hours if-not-days in downtime for routine or emergency maintenance.

3. Fast response time. Kanter holds, "Energizers don't dawdle. Energizers don't tell you all the reasons something can't be done. They just get to it…. They are very responsive to emails or phone calls, even if the fast response is that they can't respond yet…. Because they are so responsive, others go to them for information or connections. In the process, energizers get more information and a bigger personal network, which are the assets necessary for success."

The days of the lone scientist or engineer working solo for the big breakthrough are largely behind us. Today, technical solutions require technical teams with a variety of skills and knowledge. The larger your network of skilled people who know and support what you're working on, the greater you chances of success.

Kanter concludes, "The nice thing about this form of energy is that it is potentially abundant, renewable, and free. The only requirements for energizers are that they stay active, positive, responsive, and on mission."

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

Dust Explosions and Fires Analyzed ... What You Don't Know Could Hurt You

Joe Lewis — 2009-09-15T15:01:48-05:00

Many of us work in companies that process bulk solid materials. Often this processing produces dust., lots of dust. That's why there are dust collection systems and many companies that specialize in that area. Unfortunately sometimes there are hazards we don't know about, or at least we may not be aware of them.

In a recent review of the reports coming from the investigation of the accidents in Buncefieeld England and at the BP facility in Texas City where failure of level detections systems contributed to major accidents, I was made aware of a CSB video that is really pretty cool, though scary and horrifying at the same time.

The USA Chemical Safety Board investigates accidents after they occur. They have spent considerable time investigating numerous accidents involving dust explosions and fires. This is well worth the viewing of this 30 minute video.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

Remember, even the seemingly most benign dust can be hazardous. The reason dust hazards could be more serious than those as a result of vapors is because awareness and focus on dust related hazards is relatively low by comparison. Dust can be dangerous, be very respectful of it.

Joe Lewis

Who Are the Top Engineering Rock Stars? Make Your Nominations Here

Don Dunnington — 2009-08-12T12:40:23-05:00

Last night I saw Ajay Bhatt on TV for the first time. He's Intel's latest "rock star" in their "Sponsors of Tomorrow" marketing campaign.

You can see Bhatt's rock idol video here. He is an Intel fellow and the co-inventor of USB, today's standard for connecting devices to computers.

Bhatt is a good sport in playing what must have been an uncomfortable video role. But this send up of modern fan adulation does more than bring attention to one of Intel's many stellar engineers.

Intel's rock star video serves as a reminder that real people make the things that make the world a little better. And while we can't elevate every engineer--or engineering team--to the star status they deserve for their innovations, we can at least share the names of the ones we know of.

Announcing the Process Industry's Engineers Star Quest
So here's your chance to join in the nomination of our own process industry rock stars. You can nominate historical figures or contemporaries. To help get you started, here are some individuals who might qualify for star status:

Joseph Priestly (1733 – 1804): Powder and Bulk dot com publisher Joe Taylor nominated Joseph Priestly because "he's the guy who figured out oxygen and gases."

Priestly actually received a rock star's welcome when he emigrated from England to the United States in 1794. But the adulation was more for his outspoken support of the new republic than his discovery of oxygen.

According to the Chemical Heritage website, Priestly had been encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, when the later was in London, to complete his first scientific work, The History of Electricity (1767). Priestly went on to publish more than 150 works. In addition to his scientific research he was a noted English theologian, natural philosopher, educator, and political theorist.

While Priestly is credited with the discovery of oxygen (he called it "dephlogisticated air"), Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier also hold claim to the discovery. Priestly wrote six volumes on Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air.

In Birmingham, England Priestly joined the Lunar Society, a group of manufacturers, inventors, and natural philosophers who met monthly to discuss their work. The group included manufacturer Matthew Boulton, chemist and geologist James Keir, inventor and engineer James Watt, and botanist, chemist, and geologist William Withering.

Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC): Going even further back in history, my top choice for engineering rock star is Archimedes whose breakthrough screw design is still used in bulk material handling. It's the basis for the screw feeder, by far the most commonly used volumetric or gravimetric feeder found today. You can find the Archimedes screw pumping and metering liquids and bulk solids in virtually every process industry.

Archimedes wrote the earliest known explanation of the principle involved in the lever. He is said to have remarked, "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth."

Archimedes designed block-and-tackle pulley systems, allowing sailors to use the principle of leverage to lift objects that would otherwise have been too heavy to move. He is also credited with improving the power and accuracy of the catapult. During the First Punic War he invented the first odometer. As a cart outfitted with the odometer moved forward, a gear mechanism dropped a ball into a container upon each mile traveled.

Archimedes was born, lived and died in the Greek city-state of Syracuse, in Sicily. Like all the early innovators, he was a generalist and is known as a Greek mathematician, physicist, inventor, and astronomer. And he was most definitely an engineer. "His name is inextricably associated with the genesis of engineering in ancient Greece," according to this profile on the website of the Technology Museum & Science Center in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Gordon E. Moore (1929 - ): Gordon E. Moore didn't invent the computer, and he can't take full credit for the microprocessor, though he and Intel co-founder Robert Noyce certainly gave it a hand. Over the years, his Intel engineers have taken a commanding lead in development of the computer chip that has become the backbone of countless products and the transformer of nearly every business and industry.

The thing that makes Moore stand out from all the others is his early recognition of just how big this chip revolution would be. In 1965, his Moore's Law predicted the trajectory of how many transistors could be placed on a computer chip. The time frame has stretched from a year, to 18 months to two years as the size and complexity of the chips have grown, but the law has held for more than 40 years. Each new generation of chips has doubled the computing power of the previous chips. As a result computing costs have been cut in half every one to two years, while speed and computational capacity have grown exponentially.

The impact of the microprocessor on the process industries cannot be overstated. Many modern processes simply would not be possible without today's digital controls and sensors. In the bulk material handing sector, just to take one example, highly accurate loss-in-weight and weigh belt feeders wouldn't be so accurate without their microprocessor controls. Digital weighing technology simply isn't possible without their onboard microprocessors.

Moore earned a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1950 and a Ph.D. in chemistry and physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1954. For those who might say he's a chemist or a business manager, not an engineer, it should be noted that Moore is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineers. He serves on the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology and received the National Medal of Technology in 1990 and the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 2002.

Who Are Your Engineering Stars?
So now it's your chance to nominate our process industry rock stars. They may be historical figures whose work we continue to build upon today. Or you may want to nominate a contemporary like Ajay Bhatt whose work is moving us toward tomorrow. Post your comment here, or send an email to don@powderandbulk.com with the subject line Engineering Stars.

Don Dunnington
Blog moderator

Industries Look to Innovations in Process Equipment to Save Costs, Improve Quality and Stay Competitive

Don Dunnington — 2009-08-10T16:44:23-05:00

Helping industry produce better product, faster, and at lower cost has been a driving force for many of the most innovative process equipment companies. Today process automation remains the chief tool available to process industries seeking to reduce costs and improve product quality.

To help processors capture greater material cost savings while assuring product quality, the K-Tron Process Group recently unveiled its improved Feed Smart Deluxe Recipe Optimizer, a Microsoft Excel workbook (available as a free download) that helps processors calculate the potential savings hidden in their current process recipes.

The expanded and enhanced FeedSmart Deluxe adds a new level of functionality for processors wishing to minimize ingredient costs, evaluate options, and make the best possible decision when it comes time to purchase a new feeding system. The program lets you quickly compute the lowest possible recipe cost for every blend, formulation or compound, plus you can calculate additional savings that result from improved feeder accuracy.

A Seminar Just for Pharmaceutical Process Engineers
Like all manufacturers, the search for greater productivity in the pharmaceutical sector has been driven largely by global competition and economic conditions. But their drive for process innovation may be further intensified by political pressure in many countries to do something to reduce mounting health care costs across the board.

In response to the industry’s growing interest in process improvement, a group of process equipment manufacturers have been sponsoring free seminars in for process engineers in the pharmaceutical industry. “Innovations in Pharmaceutical Processing” is produced by the K-Tron Process Group in collaboration with Leistritz, Howorth Air Technology, Inc, Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems, and Quadro Engineering Corp.

Seminars have been held in major pharmaceutical processing regions around the world. I recently attended one in King of Prussia, near Philadelphia, PA. Presentations covered key topics of design in pharmaceutical processing, such as containment, continuous processing using twin screw extrusion, pneumatic conveying, milling, sieving, screening and size reduction, continuous blending, active freeze drying of products and ingredients, and feeding options for a variety of applications.

Processing Seminar Travels to California
The next stop for the pharmaceutical seminars is California--September 22, 2009, in Santa Ana, CA and September 24, 2009, in San Francisco. The seminar offers pharmaceutical processors detailed process and analytical information about important topics and trends in the industry.

The seminar organizers have put together an objective technical overview on how to improve current operations and take advantage of new technologies, such as lubricant feeding of the modern tablet press illustrated above. You can register online for the seminar, which has been developed to meet the information needs of scientists, engineers, production and manufacturing personnel, researchers, formulation scientists, product development and process transfer personnel.

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

Failure of Tank Overfill High Level System

Joe Lewis — 2009-07-21T18:01:00-05:00

What happens when your high level indicator fails without warning? Everyone knows the answer and we have talked about it before. The unknown failure of a high level sensor that is used for overfill protection can result in an overfilled condition that means lost material, clean-up, damage to equipment and even catastrophic events. People can and have died. This is preventable!

Recent conclusions from the review boards looking at the cause of the explosion at an oil depot in Buncefield England and the explosion a couple of years back at the BP facility in Texas City have cited level detection system failure and the need to utilize equipment meeting IEC 61511 requirements as part of a Safety Instrumented System is necessary. Read the full story here.

Level detection devices meeting SIL2 are commonly available for liquid level applications. However, not for powders and bulk solids. While loss of life may not be as high a risk with powders and solids, it remains a costly occurence to overfill a silo, even with plastic pellets.

Online Learning Shows Upward Trend in Down Market

Don Dunnington — 2009-07-17T17:12:10-05:00

While the world economy proves once again that Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) had it right ("What goes up must come down"), Joe Marinelli demonstrates here at the Powder and Bulk Online Training Center that some things are still headed up.

"People really appreciate that were doing this training online," Joe told me in a phone conversation, "because the economy makes it hard for them to travel to seminars." In addition to the usually high price of the seminar, there's the travel, hotel and food that can more than double the total cost.

"Even when companies have the budget to send people to seminars," Joe said, "with the leaner staffs most employees can't afford the time it takes to travel to training."

Currently four online classes are available, and a fifth is about to be released. They are part of an eight-session series on bulk solids flow:

Lecture 1: Flow Problems - Their effects and flow patterns
Lecture 2: Design principles for reliable flow - wall friction, flow functions, bin design parameters
Lecture 3: Volumetric and Gravimetric Feeding Devices
Lecture 4: Measuring Bulk Solids Flow Properties-Shear Testing, Variables that Affect Properties

Each class costs $39 and is available for seven days following purchase. A class consists of a video lasting about one hour, downloadable class notes and a self administered quiz with answer sheet.

"It's a neat package," Joe said, "you get the video, the handouts, the quiz, and I'm available by phone and email to answer questions." He said that people like the fact that the video is available to view any time. "It's a great convenience to be able to view it on your schedule, and it makes this information more easily accessible to an international audience." He said he has had participants from the Middle East, Australia, South America, Canada, Europe and across the US.

Some companies have been using the videos in group settings.

Powder and Bulk Dot Com publisher Joe Taylor told of a company that brought 10 employees into a conference room and showed the video using an LCD projector. "Bringing people into one room allowed them to discuss the video as a group. They could play, pause, talk and resume play whenever they wanted," he said. "And at a cost of just $3.90 per person to train 10 engineers, there ought to have been enough left over in their training budget to buy coffee and donuts for the group!"

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

Six Sigma Works for Alarm Management

Joe Lewis — 2009-06-03T11:08:14-05:00

Managing any process will require continuous improvement, at least if you want to manage it well. Aspects of continuous improvement, lean techniques and six sigma all call for metrics or measurements that are the standard the process needs to adhere to or exceed. A white paper addresses the application of six sigma techniques to alarm management. Click Here.

Maybe Detroit Should Try Our Maintenance-Friendly Design Philosophy

Mike Hamby — 2009-05-14T15:47:33-05:00

Did you ever start work on your car only to find a simple part that requires routine maintenance needs special tools, major disassembly, and a degree in physics to replace?

Recently I needed to change a headlight and found you need a one-of-a-kind tool and remove half the grill to change it. A headlight isn't exactly a part you would expect to last forever. It made me wonder if the engineer who designed the vehicle ever had to work on it. Probably not.

Maintenance Friendly Design
I know from my experience at Gundlach that even a big, heavy roll crusher can be designed to be maintenance friendly. We've been designing-in easy maintenance ever since T.J. Gundlach built his first crusher. We knew we better make it easy to maintain because T.J. himself might be the one who went into the field to work on it.

Roll Crusher Wear Items
From day one of a new crusher design concept, our engineers look out for the items that will wear, that will need routine maintenance, and that may be compromised during other than normal use. In the case of roll crushers these items include rolls, bearings, shafts and the connection of the unit to feed chutes and discharge chutes.

Rolls that can be removed via a coupling mounted design without disturbing bearings and drives, is a major savings design (and a Gundlach exclusive). Older and harder-to-operate-on designs use thru shafts or rolls that are integral to the shafts.

When the rolls wear they should be able to be changed out quickly.

Segmented rolls tried to overcome this shortcoming, but the cost makes them a questionable alternative to a good removal design.

The Easy Way to Change Crusher Rolls
The simpler and less costly way is to allow for the housing to be split so that the sections that need to be removed can be moved without disturbing the feed or discharge chute connections.

Then, using a coupling mounted roll design (remember Mr. Gundlach on a cold, wet, night), where the shaft couples to the roll, these connections can be easily unbolted and the rolls removed.

We Even Supply the Removal Rail
Gundlach also supplies the roll removal rail to roll out crusher rolls. This is all done without the need to disturb the main bearings or drives.

A normal roll change out can be done in 4-8 hours depending on operator experience and size of unit.

Maintenance-friendly design sounds so straight forward and obvious. Sadly, as many maintenance people can tell you, maintainability too often seems to be the forgotten end of the equation. You purchase a unit one time, but you have to maintain it for the lifetime of the machine.

Maintenance an Important Part of the Cost Calculation
Calculating your equipment cost naturally starts with capital cost. But the equation isn't complete until you considered its ability to do the job for the next 30 years and the cost and aggravation to maintain it. It's not all that hard to design maintenance friendly equipment, but it does take a level of awareness and commitment that seems to be missing with some manufacturers. Are you listening, Detroit?

Mike Hamby
Vice President Sales & Service – NAFTA
Gundlach Equipment Corporation
www.gundlachcrushers.com

Recession-Proof Industries Part 2: Electric Power and Coal

Don Dunnington — 2009-05-02T21:43:33-05:00

At Coal Prep 2009 I saw tangible evidence that coal fired electric power generation may be another of those recession-proof industries. Like the food and pharmaceutical industries covered in part 1, electric power demand continues to fuel sales for industrial equipment makers.

Attendance at this year's show is estimated by the Coal Preparation Society of America to be up 15% over last year. They ran out of exhibit space in the main hall this year, and dozens of late comers were setup in the entrance outside the hall.

Although electric power was not one of the top 50 recession-proof industries listed in the Resume Bear article, turbine generators were listed as number two. This is what Resume Bear had to say about that industry, which largely holds true for power generation as well:

One defining trait of recession-proof industries is that they are often not dependent on consumer demand. That is, the industry in question produces something that is essential to business operations or things that have little or no bearing on consumer spending. Turbines and turbine generators are an excellent example of this, boasting 6%, 12%, and 2% growth during 1990, 2001, and 2007.

Electric Power and Coal
Lee Doyer, Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Pennsylvania Crusher Corporation told me that the utility and energy areas tend to weather recessions a lot better than other sectors.

"People still turn the lights on every day," he said, "and they still need electricity to run their computers and power their homes and businesses."

Pennsylvania Crusher exhibited their Mountaineer Sizer at the Coal Prep show. The sizer is used for primary and secondary sizing of coal at the mine. Pennsylvania Crusher is also a major supplier of reversible hammermill crushers used by electric power utilities and the Coalpactor coal crusher, designed for fluid bed boiler power plants

Mike Hamby – Vice President Sales & Service – NAFTA at Gundlach Equipment Corporation said that both market demands and environmental concerns have coal producers looking to improve their processing to get more value from the coal they mine.

Gundlach was exhibiting their 4040D two-stage four-roll crusher, which takes feed up to 24" x 0" for product output of 2" x 0" and a capacity of 1000 STPH.

Hamby said he is also seeing more interest in technologies that employ lesser grade coal that once had little commercial value, such as crushing and pelletizing coal. Another example is the crushing of lower ranked coals such as lignite for coal gasification. These applications require coal sized from to 6 - 3 mm, or less, which can be accomplished with Gundlach's Cage-Paktor cage mill.

Co-firing Biomass and Coal
On the evening before Coal Prep's start Ted Gentile, International Sales Manager, Jeffrey Rader Corporation, gave a presentation on technologies used to feed dual fired coal and biomass boilers.

He described both mechanical feed systems and direct pneumatic injection systems that can be used to retrofit existing PF Wall Fired Utility Boilers and new Fluidized Bed Boiler Systems optimized for biomass and other diverse fuels.

Gentile told me that while dual fired boiler systems are new to the United States, his company has extensive experience building these systems in Europe. For more on feeding biomass into boilers see Gentile's recent blog article, Biomass Boiler Feed Systems Gain Global Acceptance.

At Coal Prep, Jeffrey Rader exhibited is electro mechanical vibratory feeder for coal and mini-mill crusher, which is used in mines and at prep plants.

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

Finding Comfort in Recession-Proof Industries

Don Dunnington — 2009-04-17T20:02:03-05:00

Earlier this week PowderandBulk.com publisher Joe Taylor told me of a conversation he had with a friend in the pneumatic conveying business. "They have had a whole series of big sales to the foods industry," he said. "I guess the sales focus changes to the industries least hurt by the recession."

Joe brings up a good point. If your only information about the economy comes from the nightly news, you might be persuaded that no one is doing business right now. But we're dealing with a very large world economy, and there are some significant sectors that continue to function quite well.

Comfort in the Food Industry
As Joe suggested, food (including pet food) is one of those sectors that tends to fare better than others in a recession.

K-Tron Process Group's Bob Barnett agrees. As vice president of sales and marketing, he has been through a number of economic ups and downs. He said, "People eat more comfort food when they're feeling bad about the economy. Companies that make snack foods, cereals and convenience foods tend to grow in recessions."

Barnett noted that food's robust growth even offers some sugar coating to an otherwise dismal plastics industry that is way down due to the auto and housing declines. Those industries making plastic film for food packaging or sheet for microwave food containers are adding process lines.

Healthy Business in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The Pharmaceutical Industry is another sector that keeps investing in production improvements in recessions. K-Tron's Barnett told me the pharmaceutical industry has a very long development process that tends to keep on track despite the mergers and consolidation the industry is experiencing.

On April 30, I'll be attending a seminar in King of Prussia, PA where I'll learn more about the growing momentum for conversion from batch to continuous processing of pharmaceuticals. The seminar, Innovations in Pharmaceutical Processing, is hosted by K-Tron Process Group, Leistritz, Howorth Air Technology, Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems, K-Tron Premier and Quadro Engineering Corp.

At the Resume Bear, a blog for job seekers, a recent article listed medicinal and biological products as number 3 of the top 50 recession-proof industries with 7%, 2%, and 5% growth in the 1990, 2001, and 2007 recessions according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many of those top 50 recession-proof industries in the Resume Bear article (especially in Part 2 which lists numbers 26-50) are actually government or educational institutions, but there are some additional industrial sectors that are worth noting. In my next post, I'll look at another industry that remains strong in the face of recession.

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator