PC-OCT22-PG17.1_Layout 1 05/10/2022 15:10 Page 17
MIXING, WEIGHING & CONVEYING COMBINING LONGEVITY AND EFFICIENCY
Landia mixers may not be the cheapest option, but their product quality is proving to be the most economic solution for a WWTP in Kansas
t Valley Center Wastewater Treatment Plant, and at an increasing number of facilities across Kansas, the decision to buy the more expensive equipment at the outset is proving to be the most economic. Savings in long-term maintenance are important, but in the shorter term, energy savings are fundamental.
A
“Total cost of ownership is what we at the plant and our city council are interested in”, said Valley Center’s Utility Manager, Wade Gaylord. “There’s always a cheap, short-term solution, but it is our duty to act in the best interests of the city and our residents to spend our budget as wisely as we can, which to me it just plain common sense”.
Situated about 12 miles north of Wichita, the 0.5 MGD (million gallon per day) wastewater treatment plant serves 2,700 homes. It includes an extended aeration treatment plant, plus ultraviolet disinfection treatment. Solids removal prior to discharge into the Little Arkansas River typically ranges from an impressive 97.5%-99%. The recent failure of a mixer at Valley Center demonstrated how top quality, long-lasting equipment represents the best value for money. “To be honest”, said Wade, “I didn’t really understand why the design of the existing mixer’s impeller was the way it was, but what I knew for sure was that it wasn’t very reliable – and that the cost of having it assessed and
repaired was prohibitive. The mixer (7.5HP) had been in use for 10 years, but had a seal-system that was just not user-friendly”. Wade spoke with multiple equipment representatives, including Fluid Equipment of Wichita. After listening to how Valley Center approached its purchasing, Jeff Ubben at Fluid Equipment recommended a Landia submersible mixer from its portfolio that sat at the top of their price bracket, but one that is set to last for 20-25 years.
“I immediately liked the Landia design”, added Wade, especially the sealing system, which protects the most important part of the mixer. We have great cohesion in our team here at Valley Center, including our Infrastructure Manager, Ron Ekstrom, who has worked here for over 20 years. When we thoroughly weighed out all the pros and cons, we saw that Landia was the most expensive purchase. However, when I presented the total cost of ownership to the city, they could see that it made by far the most sense. Our administration definitely looks for longevity, as well as best efficiency, and in 10 years’ time or less, I don’t want an operator to have to deal with the same problems that I’ve had”.
BENEFITS OF SWITCH TO AUTOMATED POWDER WEIGHING
OAL announces the successful deployment of it's APRIL robotic powder technology at fruit preparation company, Agrana Fruit. The original weighing process was manual. Two operators per shift were responsible for carrying out powder weighing. Manual handling and RSI were two key pain points, and cross- contamination was a key quality risk.
Agrana needed a system capable of handling over 100 ingredients that can be dosed to an accuracy of +/-1% with a weighing range lower than 1kg.
The APRIL Weighing system weighs powders from 250g to 25kg, reducing the labour required. Over 95% of manual weighments have been automated with only additions under 250g completed manually. For most powders, an accuracy of +/-0.5% has been achieved. The project includes real-time ingredient traceability and tracking between Agrana’s ERP system, SAP and the APRIL Weighing System. The system was built and tested at OAL’s HQ in Peterborough, including integration testing. The system had been fully debugged upon on-site delivery, enabling a fast start-up.
www.oalgroup.com
Ubben commented: “For the wastewater industry, it is very encouraging to see a young utility manager and a city push hard for better quality equipment that will stand the test of time. With a Landia mixer, Valley Center can see that they won’t have the annoying maintenance issues that lesser designed mixers will create. And as well as lasting much longer, the mixer we recommended will also do a better job, even though it uses much less energy”. With its backward sweeping propellers, the design of the Landia mixer ensures that rags can’t cling on and damage the seals. The protective grease hub in the propeller guards the seals, and is hard to wash away. It acts as an important first line of defence against all types of debris. The Landia seal system is well proven and eliminates immediate and expensive seal fail condition. Ubben pointed out that Landia can very often reuse an existing mixer manufacturer’s guiderail, so that installation can proceed without the tank having to be emptied. So again, despite Landia appearing to initially be at the high end of the price list, a retrofit doesn’t incur anywhere near the additional costs of other designs. “Previously”, said Wade, “we knew that the old 7.5 HP mixer was working and mixing – to some extent – but when the Landia mixer was installed, we turned it on and hadn’t seen the basin ever mixed like that before! The volume that the Landia mixer put through, mixing the basin from the bottom up, was pleasantly surprising; changing the dynamics for a much better process all round. All of this, too, with just a 4.9 HP motor! The amp draw of the Landia gear-driven mixer is lower than what we saw with other manufacturers (7 amps compared to the 10 and 12 amps of the others). On just this one mixer, running two hours on, two hours off, we are making an energy saving of $58 per week, which is over $3,000 per year. The return on investment is a no brainer”.
Landia
www.landiaworld.com
OCTOBER 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70
