ENGINEER TO ENGINEER
In brief
A £5m investment by Network Rail has seen engineers move thousands of
tonnes of earth to secure 1.3km of the West Coast main line railway south
of Penkridge. Because of the steep grades, Kelly Earthmoving used spider
excavators, namely the Menzi Muck M545, supplied by Exc@v8, to carry out the
work. The vehicle has tyres at the ends of four hydraulically-supported legs.
VWT UK optimises water treatment
for AB World Foods
Organic-based water
treatment chemicals
have been supplied
to food manufacturer
AB World Foods to
optimise its e uent
treatment. The VWT
solution has helped
the production facility
in Leigh, Lancashire
to reduce costs by
approximately 50% or £1,000 per month,
streamline process management and ensure
compliance with the conditions of its trade
e uent discharge permit.
Due to the nature of the products
manufactured at the Leigh site, the water
discharged from the production line contains
signi cant levels of suspended solids as well
as fat, oil and grease (FOG) content. AB World
Foods operates a Dissolved Air Flotation
(DAF) water treatment process to remove
the contamination from the water before it is
discharged. This process is aided by the use
of a chemical coagulant to help separate the
particles more e ectively.
Brian Jones, business development manager
at VWT UK explained: “When I rst visited
AB World Foods in 2019, the site was using a
tannin-based coagulant, similar to the type we
produce, but it was not performing consistently.
The process had become too complex to
manage and chemical usage was unpredictable.
These issues meant the water quality had, at
times, fallen out of the limits speci ed by the
wastewater discharge consent issued by United
Utilities.”
In consultation with the site facilities team,
VWT UK analysed the requirements and
recommended a combination of its Hydrex 6861
organic coagulant and Hydrex 6521 anionic liquid
polymer, which consolidates the ocs for easy
removal. The new system was trialled before it
was fully implemented.
Grolsch bottling plant upgrade goes
with a swing, thanks to Festo
New servo technology from Festo is helping
Grolsch to put the iconic swing tops on its
bottles of lager. The ‘swing-top transfer unit’ was
custom-designed by Festo in conjunction with
system integrator MCA Linear Motion Robotics
and is installed at the Grolsch Enschede plant in
The Netherlands.
It provides approximately 3,800 swing-top
bottles per hour with a porcelain cap and rubber
ring. Bottles without clips are fed in on one
side, while the swing tops are fed in from the
other side. Before the tops can be positioned,
a sensor detects where the hole in the bottle
neck is as the bottle rotates. On the basis of
this measurement, the bottles are rotated into
the correct position via a servo motor located
underneath. Afterwards, the swing-top transfer
unit positions the swing top while the bottle
is rotated again so the swing top can rst be
pressed into one and then into the other hole.
The nished
bottles are then
transported to
the lling line.
One of the
most important
changes
in the new
design is the
replacement of the two electric and
parallel positioned axes that carry out the
horizontal movement (X-movement) by a heavy
duty EGC axis. This has a double guide that
is actuated by new servo technology in the
form of Festo EMMT servo motors. The EMMT
compact servo motor has a single cable for
both motor and encoder signals. This means
it can generate a very low holding torque,
enabling it to synchronise several axes, even
during lower speeds.
Temperature control solutions
provider ICS Cool Energy helped
Dutch mattress manufacturer Vita
Talalay keep its operations running
with a bespoke temporary Very Low
Temperature (VLT) process cooling
system. During the fi ve weeks of
modernisation and replacement
works of its existing system, the
Maastricht, Netherlands based
manufacturer maintained production
with ICS Cool Energy’s hire solutions.
Vita Talalay was planning chiller
replacement works and was looking
for the right hire solutions to keep
its operations running during the
time of the modernisation project.
To provide a temporary alternative
for the fi xed system, ICS Cool Energy
delivered and installed four VLT 60
units with additional dry coolers and
total cooling capacity of 360kW.
Singapore is using desalination
as part of the solution to its water
supply issues to provide enough
clean drinking water for its evergrowing
population of 5.5 million.
Though surrounded by water,
having enough drinking water has
always been a challenge for this
island state. The Keppel Marina
East Desalination Plant (KMEDP)
is the latest step of Singapore
using advanced technology to help
address their water challenge. In
operation since June 2021, KMEDP
is one of the fi rst in the world with
a dual-mode facility. The plant will
produce 30 million gallons of clean
water every day; it has also been
designed sustainably in that the
treatment facility is underground,
freeing up 20,000m² of green
rooftop and community recreation
space. The KMEDP, about twice the
size of a football fi eld, can either
draw water from the surrounding
sea during periods of dry weather
or treat water from the Marina
Reservoir during periods with
heavy rain. The plant is operating
with a host of technology from ABB
including automation and control
systems as well as instrumentation
and water analysers. ABB also
supplied motors, variable speed
drives and switchgears, together
with process optimisation aimed at
increasing effi ciency.
Winter 2021 www.operationsengineer.org.uk 93
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