Lowering the environmental impact of manufacturing is key to sustainability and is often associated with increased production costs. This does not have to be the case; you can help save the planet while hitting your growth targets.
Reusing reject products is a low hanging fruit that can make a substantial difference for the environment and your balance sheet. For many processes it can be as simple as breaking down agglomerated or compressed product into smaller more usable bits, also known as size reduction.
Potential applications
For the chemical powder industry there are two key areas where size reduction can be of great benefit:
- Breaking down of large input product which otherwise cannot be used.
- Breaking down of finished oversize product which did not pass quality control for reuse in production.
Let’s break this down.
Problem #1 – Large input product
Production lines require specific raw material inputs, which need to be in the right condition for the process. If the raw material being fed in is too big it can cause process problems for a variety of reasons.
And often, we don’t have total control over the condition of the supplied raw material and the incoming product can be lumpy and agglomerated. In this situation, some or all the input stock may need to be scrapped.
In this situation you want to break the product down and your problem should go away.
Problem #2 – Rejected product
Dealing with a finished product that does not pass quality control is another challenge. Luckily, quite often this can be simply due to something as simple as product agglomerating together. In this case it can still be used but would need to be broken down into fine particles again. It’s a simple problem to solve with the right machine.
Gericke De-agglomeration and size reduction
Based on the two potential applications there is only one question left: How to achieve effective size reduction? The simple and effective solution is provided by Gericke in the form of a lump breaker, or as we call it, a Nibbler.
If you imagine an industrial grade cheese grater, with large powerful rotating paddle blades breaking the product down through a steel screen, then you have a Nibbler.
It has been tried and tested by industry leaders for decades and has proven to be a standard in reliability and effectiveness. Machine sold all the way from 1980s are still in daily operation today!
To find your nearest Gericke office and speak with our experts about the nibbler and how you can improve your powder processing today, Click here
