Problem solving

Safe disposal of large amounts of dust

Flexible industrial vacuums used in the manufacture of thermal insulation

Dust is an inevitable feature of processes where milled, powdery material is pressed into sheets and panels. The manufacture of thermal insulation panels from vermiculite is no exception. Expanded vermiculite is an environment friendly, non-liming material ideal for making insulation which resists temperatures up to 1200° C. It is widely used in house building and as an insulation in foundries, waste incinerators, power stations and other industrial applications.

Kramer Progetha GmbH & Co. KG in Düsseldorf has specialised in thermal insulation for more than fifty years. Today, the company's product range includes expanded vermiculite panels measuring 30 x 30 cm. These are cut from large, pressed sheets and then trimmed and deburred. A suction nozzle fitted with a brush attachment and mounted over the conveyor belt sweeps and vacuums up any loose dusty material. The loose material is vacuumed up and extracted by a Ruwac DS 4150 Type industrial vacuum cleaner. This is an excellent vacuum for extracting large quantities of dust. A large filter surface area of 11 square metres ensures uniform vacuuming performance over long periods even with the finest of dusts. The DS 4150 has been customised to Kramer Progetha's specifications using components from Ruwac's modular vacuum system.

The vacuum is mobile and the dust collector silo also has its own trolley frame. Vacuumed dust is emptied from the silo directly into a big-bag collector ready for re-use and recycling. This equipment specification means that a large amount of dust can be collected before the silo has to be emptied. The vacuum unit itself can also be operated separately from the silo unit. In this case the mobile unit is operated together with a 200-litre pre-separator drum to enable the vacuuming of large amounts of dust in any position.

Emptying the 200-litre drum is easy for Kramer Progetha operators. The drum has a frame fitted with fork-lift brackets and is simply picked up and tipped using a fork-lift truck. Operators don't have to worry about remembering when to dedust the class C filter. Filter status is electronically monitored by a differential pressure sensor which automatically triggers the electrical deduster whenever required.

Kramer Progetha has chosen a large Ruwac vacuum with low running costs and top cleaning performance. The vacuum is also very flexible. It can be used as a mobile stand-alone vacuum anywhere in the work environment where there is dust to be removed.