June 20, 2017

Macawber Engineering, Inc. will be featured in Globalspec’s June issue of “Material Handling & Supply Chain Technology”.  Globalspec, also known as Engineering360, is “the world’s largest online destination for engineers, delivering the single source for critical engineering content, information, insight, tools and community for engineers and technical professionals across multiple industries and disciplines”.  Engineering360’s website contains news, products, suppliers and much more.  You can check out our profile on Engineering360 and subscribe to their newsletters by clicking on the links below.

http://www.globalspec.com/Subscriptions/SignUp

http://www.globalspec.com/Supplier/Profile?vid=93421&srchwebhitid=788364718&srchitem=1

http://www.globalspec.com/newsletter/pub/80/material-handling-supply-chain-technology?isPastIssue=1

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August 28, 2017

Come and see our dense-phase, low-velocity pneumatic conveying system in operation at the 2017 Midwest Powder Show at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, September 28-29. We will be in booth 209, and we look forward to demonstrating the simplicity of our equipment and technology as well as explaining the principles behind conveying powdery materials with no or minimal material degradation or pipe wear while also creating cost savings through reduced energy usage. Whatever your conveying requirements, our team has the experience to discuss how we can improve your process. See you in Ohio!

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 ISO 9001:2015: Commitment to our Customers and Quality

We are proud to announce that we have successfully transitioned to the new ISO 9001:2015 standard.  We were first certified in 1998 but quality has been a key focus of ours since the beginning, 40 years ago.

Initially years ago, becoming ISO:9001 certified was a taunting task, and the early thick quality manuals are evidence of the detail that at the time was required.  Since then the principles that ISO 9001 represents have become a second nature to us improving professionalism and our ability to provide value to our customers. 

We at Macawber recognize the pressures of quicker ROI and the shrinking capital equipment budgets but we will never compromise our quality or customer satisfaction.   We work diligently to control cost while continue to manufacture our equipment to the highest quality standards.  Our ISO 9001 quality management system combined with our ASME pressure vessel qualification and ERP software system provide a robust operating system that makes it possible to control cost and produce quality equipment. The result is equipment that lasts for decades and customer satisfaction that creates repeat and new customers.   

To coincide with the new ISO 9001:2015 standard, we revised our Quality Statement to better reflect our objectives. These objectives are embraced by our management as well as employees and drive forward our daily activities and our business strategy overall:

Macawber is committed to providing a high degree of value by leveraging our experience and expertise to create a competitive advantage, strengthen our customer satisfaction and maximize business results.  To achieve this we will:

• Work together as a team, communicate openly and share lessons learnt
• Continually improve our skills, processes and transparency
• Reduce material and process waste and overall product costs
• Understand our customers’ needs and create a positive customer experience from initial enquiry to on-time delivery and after service
• Gage overall customer success and ensure the customer is supported throughout the life of their equipment
• Increase sales and create mutually beneficial and long-lasting partner relationships
• Create and maintain safe working environment
• Meet and continually improve our Quality Management System

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Macawber Engineering Inc., in the US celebrates 40 years in business.

From humble beginnings in Doncaster, England in the early 1970s and £100.00 to invest we have developed into a worldwide company with manufacturing bases not only in the US but also in the UK, India, Brazil and China. Two visionaries, Michael Crawley and Brian Snowdon, with a same dream but complimentary talents saw an opportunity in the market, joined forces and Macawber Engineering Limited in the UK was born. 

With the development of our proprietary Dome Valve in the 70s and the ability to reliably control the flow of material and repeatedly provide bubble tight seal, we became the pioneers of dense-phase pneumatic conveying, testing materials in purposely built laboratory to better understand the principles of low velocity conveying while introducing and educating customers and others of the benefits this type of conveying provides compared to mechanical and dilute phase systems.

During the decades that followed Macawber Group of companies expanded to US, India, China and Brazil.  All of the companies have continued to focus on dense-phase pneumatic conveying becoming highly specialist experts with the ability to convey successfully difficult to handle materials and often called to assist when other conveying methods and companies have failed.

Over the years, we have expanded our offerings and capabilities. Our largest Dome Valve® is 30”, longest distance conveyed is 2900 ft and highest conveying rate is 125 Mt/h. Our vessel sizes vary from our tiny MiniDenseveyor, just ½ ft³ to the large Denseveyor® of 125 ft³. Regardless of the application or system size our designs offer operating savings through reliability, efficiency and simplicity.

There has been glory such as being awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Export in the 80s and obstacles such as losing Macawber Engineering Limited in the UK after a coalminers’ strike later in the same decade halted all coal production for a year. The company was later re-established in the UK under the name Mactenn Systems Ltd.  However, we have persevered and with the experiences become wiser and stronger.

We have remained family owned and a large part of our staff has been with the company 10 years or more.  Some over 30 years.  Our founder, Michael F. Crawley set the high standards we follow today.  He was much admired for his drive, charisma, knowledge and the ability to innovate and motivate. After his passing in 2012, Maria Petsola-Crawley, who has been involved in the business for 20 years, took over as a CEO.  Equipped with Mike’s passion for the business and a committed team around her, she has focused on customer satisfaction and strengthening our core competences while introducing improvements that benefit our operating efficiency.    

Today, experience, expertise and product quality, is what sets us apart and what has kept us going for 40 years.  In addition, we are able to offer personalized service creating lasting relationships.

As our installation base has grown, our reputation as a dense-phase pneumatic conveying specialist has spread and we now offer customer-specific conveying solutions to end-users, EPCs and OEMs throughout the world.  Despite our ability to convey thousands of materials we continue to research and test materials and develop products in order to serve our customers better.

As we in the US celebrate 40 exciting years in business, we thank our customers and associates worldwide who have trusted us and with their recommendations helped us to progress and reach this important milestone. We also thank our past and current staff who have with their commitment, work and ideas contributed to our success.

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1. Why Inflatable Seat Valves?

• Avoids Leakage: An inflatable seat is more effective than a hard of fixed nylon seat valve. The seat is pressurized against the closing member to entrap any particles and prevent them from moving over the seat surface under the influence of a pressure differential. If particles do not move they will not cause wear.

• Compensates for Wear: An inflatable seat will always move towards the spherical component seat under the influence of the compressed gas when sealing is required. As the seat face becomes scuffed or reduced the movement of the seat will compensate for the thickness reduction and continue to establish a pressurized seal.
• Complete Opening: The Dome Valve® inflatable seat valve is completely open and does not restrict flow when open. The closing spherical member is open away from the flow of material and is unaffected by the effects of media flowing through the valve. No restriction to flow through the valve when open.
• Zero Contact: The inflatable seat is not in contact with the closing member during opening and closing. The inflatable seat engages the closing member only when it has reached its closed position. Therefore, the possibility of wear is again reduced.
• Proven Concept: The inflatable seat concept was introduced to industry in 1974. Since that time more than 40,000 valve installations have been completed.
• High Temperature: Applications up to 43 barg have been completed for valve sizes to 600mm.
• High Pressure: Applications to 380°C have been completed without determent to the inflatable seat elastomer. This achieved with a unique water cooling process to the spherical component and the elastomer housing.
• Leak-Proof: The inflatable seat valves ensure leak-proof sealing operation after continuous operation when operating to isolate a pressure differential.

2. Definitions:

• Inflatable Seat: The sealing seat of the valve that engages the closing member for pressure sealing when the closing member reaches the full closed position.
• Zero Contact: Describes an automatic valve action that ensures that the valve seat is not in contact with the closing member until the pressure sealing is required.
• Compensation: Automatic adjustment of the inflatable seat to accommodate changes to the sealing requirements.
• Leak-Proof: No leakage across the valve when closed against a high pressure or vacuum differential. Exceeds an international standard of measurement.

3. Why Macawber?

• Experience: More than 10,000 installations and over 40 years of experience
• Wide product range: Equipment available for majority of applications
• Guarantee: 24 months as standard
• Continuous development: Two new patents granted recently and other improvements.
• International group
• ISO 9001:2015 Certified

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Macawber Group’s Cement Handling Capability is Creating Even Better Benefits

We have recently focused on research and development efforts to improve our cement handling skills even further.  These efforts have created considerable benefits in terms of improved return of investment as well as improved capability.  As we all know cost is an increasingly important factor in the decision to select any capital equipment system such as a pneumatic conveying system, so we continuously work on costs and transferring savings created to our customers.

Our Cementveyor’s recent modifications have provided the following advantages:

• Equipment price has been reduced by a minimum of 15%.
• Equipment configuration has been simplified.
• Equipment operation has been simplified.
• Conveyance of longer distances using smaller pipe size has been achieved

Armed with the above improvements and coupled with an existing reputation for conveying cement and other abrasive materials reliably and efficiently, our sister company, Mactenn Systems was recently awarded with a contract for conveying cement in a new Port in Ireland.  The installation generated considerable interest and excitement and it was featured in a World Cement Bulk Material Handling Review (BMHR) end of the year issue. 

You can read the full article from BMHR here-

http://publications.worldcement.com/flip/world-cement/2017/BMHR2017/bmhr-2017.html or the below summary:

A new export hub was opened by Quinn Cement at Warrenpoint in Northern Ireland late 2017.  This new terminal was built to facilitate export in light of forthcoming Brexit, UK’s separation from the European Community.  At the same time, Quinn Cement entered into a ten year agreement with the Warrenpoint Harbour Authority.  The company transports cement to numerous ports across the UK from this new hub. 

Warrenpoint Harbour Authority hired PM Engineering Ltd. to design, construct and install silos and be responsible for the overall procurement and construction.  An important decision of this project was the selection of the mechanism of transfer of cement from the silos to the ships.  PM Engineering turned to us being familiar with our flexibility and skill to provide custom-made solutions and our ability to convey powdery materials, such as cement reliably and efficiently eliminating or minimizing wear.  The contract was rewarded to our sister company, Mactenn Systems Ltd., which  provided 10 Denseveyor® (Maxflo) dense-phase pneumatic conveying systems to convey cement from the silos to the ships.

Keep an eye on the complete Case Study which will follow.

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Mactenn Systems, a Macawber Group company was awarded a contract to convey 50T/h of cement to ocean vessel using 10 Denseveyor systems.  Using low velocity Ten cement pneumatic conveying systems are operating at a ship loading site at Warrenpoint port in Northern Ireland.  The customer was extremely pleased with the systems.

2 of the 10 Denseveyor 30/12-5 conveying systems

 Cement Conveying Systems, Ireland.

IN BRIEF

Ten Conveying vessels in pairs below 5 x 1000 ton silos with twin outlets convey at a rate of 50 tons/hour each (500t/h total) over a distance of 253 feet. The vessels are 23 cubic feet with a Macawber 12” Dome Valve® filling valve and a 5 inch convey line.

The current method of loading the ship was using multiple trucks. This method was insufficient and required too many trucks.  Mactenn was brought in to improve the ship loading time and efficiency using their dense-phase pneumatic conveying systems.  Conveying with Macawber conveying equipment meant that the trucks could load cement into the silos prior to ships arrival reducing the loading time by 50% (now about 12 hours). The system has met all of the customers’ expectations and is operating reliably at Warrenpoint port in Northern Ireland. The system has a remote connection to the Macawber office in Suffolk, England so immediate support is available with real time monitoring. It is planned to increase from 10 to 16 systems in the future.

MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS

Cement                       100% less than 50 mesh

Bulk Density                66 lb./ft³

Temperature               Ambient

Moisture Content        0.06%

Condition                     Free flowing, very abrasive

SYSTEM OBJECTIVES

1.  Dense phase low velocity conveying & low wear

2.  Short delivery

3.  Reliable operation

SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

Transfer Capacity       500 t/h minimum                                          

Conveying Distance   253 ft.                                               

Reception Points         Single ship with 10 access points                  

IMPROVEMENTS AND SAVINGS ACHIEVED

1. Reduce ship loading time by 50%

2. Reduced compressed air requirements

3. Minimized wear for such a highly abrasive material (low velocity conveying)

4. Capability to remotely support the operating personnel

Ship during loading with the 10 separate lines                 

View of the control room and silos

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Macawber Engineering, Inc. will be exhibiting in the 2018 International Power and Bulk Solids show in Rosemont, IL, April 24-26.  Come stop by our booth, number 1334, to see how our systems operate and for information on how we can help to improve your process. We look forward to meeting you!

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Question- HOW CAN I SELECT A PNEUMATIC CONVEYING SYSTEM FOR MY FRAGILE/FRIABLE MATERIAL?

Answer- Any fragile material will suffer product degradation in a pneumatic conveying system. The object is to minimize the degradation as much as possible. Product degradation is caused by impacts (with bends and deflectors) and shearing – caused by interaction with the walls of the pipe. The nature of the flow pattern and the material velocity are key factors.

Dilute phase conveying is clearly unsuitable due to very high velocities (40-60 ft. /s) and the material suspended in the air stream.

Dense Phase conveying offers different flow patterns and lower velocities. Slug flow (so called because the material is conveyed via a series of compact slugs) typically has velocities in the range of 4-10 ft. /s range. Conveying at these velocities will greatly reduce impact breakage. Moreover, only the material in contact with the pipe walls will suffer shearing degradation – the majority of the material will be contained inside the slug in a very stable condition. Slug flow conveying will produce very low levels of degradation depending on the product being conveyed.

It is possible to achieve even lower velocities via a flow pattern called solid dense phase which relies on the pipe line being 80-90% full of material. A vessel full of material will then enter the pipe line and be conveyed only a few feet. A corresponding volume of product will be discharged at the delivery end of the pipe. Material is “pushed” rather than conveyed and velocities of 1-2 ft. /s can be achieved. This type of conveying is restricted to mono sized round particles such as peanuts.

Whatever type of pneumatic conveying is selected it is essential that the user request full scale conveying tests from the vendor. These tests should be attended by the purchaser with before and after conveying samples taken to confirm that the level of degradation is within acceptable limits.

Author: Bell, John, Macawber Engineering, Inc.

Check out Powder and Bulk Engineering’s forthcoming issue on their website https://www.powderbulk.com/

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Our systems can convey a wide variety of materials from foods, minerals, chemicals, cement, pharmaceuticals, sand, biomass, plastics, ash and much more.  We have been conveying these materials for decades and are confident we can be the solution to your process.

For more detailed examples of what we can convey, please see below.  Note, this is not a complete list.  Inquiry today to see how we can convey your material!

List of materials

• Food- peanuts, cheese balls, raisins, almonds, rice cereal, pretzels, tea, ground coffee, coffee beans, cocoa, sugar, flour, dough mix, oats, sunflower seeds
• Pharmaceuticals
• Cement
• Chemicals- boric acid
• Minerals-iron powder, calcium oxide, gold ore, calcium chloride, sodium chlorate, limestone, salt, iron oxide, lime
• Dust- rock, shot
• Sand- silica, resin coated, knockout
• Glass- blended, fiber, crushed
• Wood- pellets, pulp
• Ash- wood ash, fly ash, bed ash, potash
• Clay- calcined kaolin
• Coal
• Pet food
• Bee pollen
• Biomass
• Plastics

And More!

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