Materials handling | case study
The Plastics Group of America turned the limited headroom of its plant to its advantage when specifying materials handling systems
TPG does its level best with Flexicon
The Plastics Group of America (TPG) runs its com- pounding lines in a former textile mill building in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, USA. The historic location means that the company works with a limited headroom of 14-16 feet (around 4.5 m) which has led to some interesting additives handling solutions. It is using Flexicon bulk bag discharger and screw
conveyor systems both on its original 68-mm twin- screw extruder and a more recent 70-mm line. Selecting these bulk handling systems for additives has helped TPG to keep all its processing lines on a single floor level of its 60,000 ft2
(5,600 m2 ) building. Cutting
through the ceiling was an option, but staying on one level had its attractions. Duane Delaney, the company’s technical manager, says that it has avoided the need for the multi-level platforms typically used to house feeders and other auxiliary systems for twin-screw compounding. “These can rise 20 to 30 feet [6 to 9 metres], making it difficult
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and dangerous to clean and maintain equipment as well as adding $100,000 to $200,000 to the cost of a compounding line for platforms, railings and steps,” he explains, adding: “Our philosophy of production is to make it safe, easy and simple to do a job.” The resin hoppers on the twin-screw extruders are
fed by pneumatic lines from silos in a conventional way. However, additives handling presented special chal- lenges in addition to the plant’s height restriction. A wide range of additives, fillers and reinforcements are used at the plant, including talc, mica, calcium carbonate, barium sulphate, glass fibres and glass beads. Transfer- ring these from a relatively remote location using a pneumatic or mechanical system would have been expensive, required more maintenance and run the risk of damaging sensitive materials such as glass fibres. It was decided that a bulk bag discharging system
paired with a flexible screw conveyor installed near the compounding line would provide a lower-cost and
April 2012 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 47 The first
Flexicon bulk bag discharger installed at the TPG for convey- ing additives to a twin-screw extruder
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