Industries

The 2023 International Powder and Bulk Solids Conference and Exhibition took place April 25-27, 2023 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. The event, sponsored by the Process Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (PEMA®) and produced by Informa Markets, is the leading powder and bulk handling and dry processing event in North America. It attracted more than 3,000 attendees and featured over 30 conference sessions and 350 exhibitors, showcasing bulk material handling equipment from 30 different countries. Blower & Vacuum Best Practices and Compressed Air Best Practices Magazines were among the publications available at the show’s entrance.

The objective of this article is to look at typical industrial wastewater agitation processes and share various energy saving compressed air/blower projects that have worked well over the years. These basic fundamentals are a good starting point to begin the evaluation of a project idea. There are three primary uses of compressed air in all wastewater treatment applications. This article will focus on agitation and movement of materials.

Supplying air to process equipment necessitates a system approach. Selecting the blowers is a critical design step, but far from the final one. The layout of the blower room and ancillary equipment is just as critical to project success as the blowers themselves.

Single-stage centrifugal blowers are a proven technology that have been around for many years and will probably be here for many years to come. A well maintained machine can last for decades and will likely outlast its original control system. Even if the control system is still in good working order the components might already be end of life and hard to replace if any of them fail. If you are thinking about modernizing the hardware (PLC / HMI / Instruments) this is also a great opportunity to make the system a little smarter and user friendly. 

One definition of “calibrate” is “to determine, rectify, or mark the graduations of something”. An ammeter is an instrument for measuring electric current. Therefore the simple definition of a calibrated ammeter is a current measuring device marked with units of measure, presumably amperes. In the blower industry, however, the term has developed a specific meaning. A calibrated ammeter is an instrument that measures a blower motor’s current draw and converts the measurement to a display of blower airflow rate. 
 

The 2022 AISTech Conference and Exposition was held May 16-18 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the conference and exposition’s most successful year yet with more than 8,000 attendees. The event featured 300+ technical presentations and 500+ exhibitors, featuring the latest technologies in iron- and steelmaking from all over the world. AISTech 2022 also gave away a brand new, fully loaded, 2022 Chevy Silverado Truck to one lucky attendee. Both Blower & Vacuum Best Practices and Compressed Air Best Practices Magazines were pleased to be in the literature bins. 

More than 300 million tons of plastic is produced every year, and much of it ends up causing environmental problems. In response to these challenges, there are widespread global efforts to increase recycling capacity and innovate for more efficient and effective recycling solutions. Vacuum plays a critical role in achieving these improvements.

The 2022 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE), was held January 25-27, 2022 in Atlanta with more than 500,000 square feet of exhibit space and 1,140-plus exhibitors. Attendee numbers had not been released when this was written. Sponsored by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, American Feed Industry Association and the North American Meat Institute, IPPE is the world's largest annual poultry, meat and animal food industry event of its kind. 

This article aims to discuss the various technologies of equipment that could be presented to a wastewater operator faced with a temporary need for blower air and to help the operator understand the impact (both monetarily through a “Total Cost of Rental” approach and environmentally) of their decisions.

By using state-of-the-art vacuum technology for degassing mineral water, it has been possible to save an average of 3,000 cubic meters of water per filling plant per year. The solution was to replace the existing liquid ring vacuum pumps with MINK claw vacuum pumps from Busch Vacuum Solutions.