K-Tron Acquires Rader Companies

Pitman, NJ -- K-Tron International, Inc. today announced the acquisition by its Jeffrey Specialty Equipment Corporation subsidiary of all of the stock of privately-held Rader Companies, Inc. K-Tron financed the Rader acquisition by borrowing the full amount of the purchase price under its existing credit facility with Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania.

Rader, which is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, manufactures and markets pneumatic conveying systems, screening equipment, engineered storage and reclaim systems and truck dumpers for processing bark and wood chips for the global pulp and paper and forest products industries; the Razorback™ sizer which is used to size bark and waste wood in wood fiber processing applications; and the EDK feeder/delumper which is used by the worldwide petrochemical industry in manufacturing polypropylene and polyethylene.

The company also has sales and service offices in Montreal and Vancouver, Canada and in Stockholm, Sweden. Tracing the origins of its business back more than 50 years, Rader has a well-established customer base in North America and throughout the world, resulting in significant repeat business, and replacement parts are an important aspect of that business. For the 12-month period ended June 30, 2007, Rader’s unaudited revenues were approximately $25 million.

Top operating management of Rader, which consists of seven of the nine former shareholders, will remain following the acquisition, including Tony Lubiani, President and CEO and head of sales, Richard Goncalves, President and General Manager of the company’s Canadian subsidiary and five other shareholders who have led Rader’s Engineering (Mike Barron), Purchasing (Fred Rogers), Customer Service (Ted Gentile), Sales Support (Conrad Matula) and R&D (Bryan Lanham) departments since the beginning of 2000. Mr. Lubiani will report to Don Melchiorre, Senior Vice President of K-Tron responsible for its Size Reduction Group.

Commenting on the transaction, K-Tron Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward B. Cloues, II said, “The acquisition of Rader significantly expands the scope of K-Tron’s activities in the pulp and paper and forest products industries, which we have been serving through our Jeffrey subsidiary located in Woodruff, South Carolina. The combination of the Jeffrey and Rader businesses over the next 12-to-18 months should enhance the strong position of each company as an equipment supplier to these industries, traditionally the primary customer base of both companies. The acquisition of Rader also provides K-Tron with a platform to participate in the rapidly growing worldwide business of biomass derived fuels, a new field that Rader has been pursuing successfully during the past two years.”

Added Don Melchiorre, “This is an exciting expansion of K-Tron’s Size Reduction Group and especially of our Jeffrey business. From an operational perspective, the acquisition will provide fuller utilization of Jeffrey’s manufacturing assets, and both organizations should benefit significantly from improved efficiencies and cost savings in the areas of sales, engineering, administration and customer service. And with Tony Lubiani and his management team continuing to operate the Rader business, we will immediately benefit from established market and product knowledge and domestic and international customer relationships.”

K-Tron International, Inc. and its subsidiaries design, produce, market and service material handling equipment and systems for a wide variety of industrial markets. The Company has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China, and its equipment is sold throughout the world.

Source: http://www.ktron.com/

JohnPac Consolidates Two Bag Businesses

Crowley, LA -- Peter John and David John, owners of Louisiana Bag Company and LA PAC recently unveiled plans to umbrella their packaging, manufacturing and distribution companies under one name, JohnPac effective September 1, 2007. The change reflects the companies’ shared heritage and global reach.

Beginning in September, Louisiana Bag and LA PAC customers will receive the same quality products, quick service and competitive prices from JohnPac, a family-owned, US-based company that has been committed to solving your packaging needs since 1953.

It remains JohnPac’s philosophy to continue to grow and develop by strengthening our geographic presence throughout the USA thereby improving our benefits in supply chain, technological developments and product innovation.

About JohnPac

Based in Crowley, Louisiana, the company has been in business over 50 years with manufacturing and distribution experience in the industrial packaging sector. JohnPac manufactures vertically in-house, from granulate to end product, i.e. yarns and fabric for polypropylene products such as FIBCs, small poly weave bags and BOPP bags.

Web site: http://www.johnpac.com/

Glass-Lined Agitator Blades Improve Mixing

MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ -- The availability of a new glass-lined agitator blade design which combines the advantages of hydrofoil agitator blades and trapezoidal agitator blades for improved mixing in glass-lined vessels was announced by Tom Adams, director of technical sales, De Dietrich Process Systems.

The geometry of the new blade, trademarked OptiFoil®, is said to maximize the pumping action required for homogenization, suspension, heat transfer and crystallization of fragile particles. Furthermore, the shape of the blade produces effective mixing of minimum product volumes, creates strong flow at the reactor bottom, and facilitates evacuation of the vessel by reducing the gap between the blades and the bottom of the reactor, keeping particles in suspension while they exit the vessel.

According to the company, the blades can mix a minimum of 5 gallons in a 500-gallon vessel, and 20 gallons in a 4000-gallon vessel.

The pitch angle of the OptiFoil blades also results in smoother contact with the product than vertically-oriented trapezoidal blades, less shear, and is said to prevent the alteration of fragile crystals.

In addition, the blades can reportedly mix higher viscosity liquids than can hydrofoil blades or standard flat blades, and produce axial and radial flow characteristics that are suitable for virtually every process.

Engineered for use in glass-lined steel vessels, OptiFoil blades are available as an option on one-piece glass-lined mixers, or as removable blades when used in conjunction with the company’s GlasLock® interchangeable glass-lined agitator blade system.  A range of sizes allows matching of the blades to the process and vessel capacity.

De Dietrich Process Systems is a global supplier of chemical and pharmaceutical processing equipment and specialized systems manufactured from borosilicate glass, glass-lined steel and various alloys, for reaction technology, mixing and heat transfer, advanced separation, high-efficiency filtration and drying, solids containment and gas and liquid handling.

For information contact:
De Dietrich Process Systems, Inc.
244 Sheffield St.
Mountainside, NJ 07092
Telephone: 908-317-2585
Email: sales@ddpsinc.com
Web site: http://www.ddpsinc.com/ 

EPA-MACT Baghouse Leak Detection Systems

Beverly, MA -- FilterSense offers a wide range of fabric filter leak detection systems that comply with MACT and other EPA compliance regulations. Systems include: stack monitors with automatic self checks to eliminate the manual labor associated with EPA quality assurance requirements; multi-channel systems with leak locating technology for large multi-compartment baghouses; low cost loop powered transmitters.

All solutions feature the company’s unique induction sensing principle which is said to be more reliable than traditional triboelectric and opacity devices particularly in difficult applications such as coal, steel, cement, carbon black, lead smelters, chemical plants and pharmaceutical spray dryers.

FilterSense invented the induction principle and protected probe technologies in 1994. The two main models, the Filter LeakGauge (Model EM 30) and Continuous DustGauge (Model EM70) have proven repeatedly to be superior to traditional triboelectric broken bag detectors and opacity monitors.

For more information contact:
FilterSense
800 Cummings Center, 357W
Beverly, MA 01915 USA
Telephone: 978-927-4304
Fax: 978-927-4329
Web site: http://www.filtersense.com/

I

Sweco Acquires Ecutec Barcelona SL Sweco announced its recent acquisition of Ecutec Barcelona SL, a company that specializes in classifying, coating and grinding powders.

New Powders Shear Cell Launched at AAPS
Freeman Technology is launching a new shear cell at this year’s Annual Meeting & Exposition of the AAPS.

New Bulk Bag Discharging System Patented Material Master™ Bulk Bag Discharging System offers exclusive features that maximize production efficiency.

More headline news...

 Free : Powder and Bulk Dot Com Video Center

Share your videos with everyone.  We have over 200+ industry-related videos that have been watched over 70,000+ times.  You can watch, upload and share industry videos on our Video Center, free!  Its a great way to promote your company, product or service.

People post their requests for help and offer their suggestions to others in our open forum.

Mr. Martorano needs help drying a synthetic powder:

Hello all, I am new to the forum and new to powder synthesis. Basically, we are scaling up a powder synthesis process where we are making ceramic powders for piezoelectrics.

The question I have is regarding drying. For very small lab-scale batches, we are using either a hot plate or forced air oven. We have a large volume of liquid that needs to be driven off and the liquid is primarily water and ammonia.

I want to know what would be the best piece of equipment to use for drying? I have read a bit about filtration and vacuum drying, but I am unsure what I need.

We are interested in purchasing whatever we need to do this; first R&D scale, then production. Any information anyone has would be very helpful. Thanks a lot.   (to post reply, click here)

Regards,
Chris Martorano
cmartorano@tbtgroup.net

Mr. McBain needs help fining pneumatic conveyors:

Can anyone recommend a company or an agent in Australia that supplies heavy duty equipment for bulk handling and pneumatically conveying abrasive calcined quicklime?  (to post reply, click here)

Mike McBain
Tasmania
mikemcb@southcom.com.au

Click here to share your expertise with others in our Help Forum.

Mfr. Rep. Groups Needed in the Western US

Russell Finex Inc. are a worldwide leader in fine mesh separation technology, designing and manufacturing high quality vibratory sieves, separators and filters for use throughout the processing industries. Visit our website at to learn more about our product offerings.

We have multiple open territories available in the West. We are looking for reps that understand processing industries well.

Please send an email with requested territory and line list to:
Mr. Barry Bolinger
Western Regional Sales Manager
Russell Finex Inc.
Telephone: 408-353-1247
Email: barry_bolinger@russellfinexinc.com 
Web site: http://www.russellfinex.com/

The Job Fair is a free service of Powder and Bulk Dot Com.  You can post job opening for managers, engineers, sales, reps or other talented people you need. ...Or one can post their resume for companies who are looking to add talented people to their staff.

Do you have a position you need to fill?  Visit the Job Fair.

© 1999-2007 Powder and Bulk Dot Com
Home page:  http://www.powderandbulk.com/

Joseph Taylor, Editor
Powder and Bulk Dot Com Newsletter
3948 South Third Street, No. 121
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

Phone: 904-280-4656
Fax: 904-273-1399

Email:  jtaylor@powderandbulk.com

Powder and Bulk Dot Com's Newsletter is a 100% opt-in e-mail list of information for the materials handling professional.  Do you have company news, a new product, new service or other information you would like to share with our subscribers?  Please submit articles via e-mail, only to: news@powderandbulk.com

"Whole lotta shaking going on"

In addition to our report about Zeppelin's acquisition last week, we have three more acquisitions/mergers to report in this week's newsletter.  It looks like consolidation continues in our industry.  What does it mean, what does it say about the value of companies, alone or combined,  read on!

We have only 4 books to give away!

Don's "Blogging for Books" contest is still on!  If you would like to win, please email our blog moderator, Don Dunnington, for details on how to enter.

With over 6,200+ subscribers, our goal is to provide information to improve your business by using the resources available on the Internet.

Very Truly Yours,
Joe Taylor, Editor
jtaylor@powderandbulk.com

• Homepage

• Buyers Guide
  & Industry Directory

• Video Center

• The News Center

• Help Forum

• Job Fair

• Powder and Bulk Weblog

• Ask Joe! Column

• Banner Advertising

• Newsletter Ads

• Archived Newsletters

Solid-Liquid Filtration and Separation Technology
by Y. A. Rushton, etal
Paperback, 539 pages, 1996

.

Screw Conveyor 101
by Michael P. Forcade
Spiral-bound, 260 pages, 1999

.

Circular Storage Tanks and Silos
by A. Ghali
Library Binding, 352 pages
2nd edition, June 2000

.

Find more books for the materials handling professional online, visit our Reading Room.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Aero-Mechanical Conveying
Guest article by Kevin Nichols

We Need Your
Guest Articles!
Do you have an area of expertise in bulk materials, have you solved a difficult materials problem? Share your knowledge with others and promote yourself by contributing an article to the Ask Joe! Column.

For more information, please contact Joe Marinelli.

Past Ask Joe! Archived Articles

More case histories...

How can you reach the world's bulk materials handling and processing top executives, engineers, managers and service personnel?

By placing a banner ad on the industry's most popular web site. Powder and Bulk Dot Com is your strategic link to the precise audience interested in your products and services.  Both nationally and internationally.

Rates are reasonable - and results are more than satisfying!

Want a Rate Card now?

Email:  rates@powderandbulk.com

Click here for more
Advertising information

This week's homepage photo is of the Benetech InteliFlow chute system being installation at TVA's Cumberland Fossil Plant located in Cumberland City, TN this year.  Benetech offers a full range of products and services relating to the safe storage, transfer and processing of coal.

(Editor's Note: You should have a look at their site and what they can do with modeling and designing chute work! -Joe Taylor)

Photo courtesy of Mario Stegic from Benetech USA

Send us your photos:  We would love to have your photo of a bulk materials process, packaging, conveying or handling "action shot" for our home page.  Send your photograph and description to: news@powderandbulk.com