Yara repeats order for mixer – 26 years on

York, UK — John R Boone has supplied a replacement 2000-litre heavy duty rotary drum blender to York-based agrochemicals manufacturer Yara Phosyn Chemicals, which has used mixer from the same maker to manufacture its Grasstrac product since 1984.

Grasstrac is a micro-nutrient based grass improver, used to improve livestock nutrition. It combines a solid soluble base material onto which a pre-mix of selenium and other nutrients is sprayed through the mixer’s integral spray lance and then efficiently coated in the drum mixer.

Twenty-five years plus of bathing in a salt solution can test even the best-made equipment although, amazingly, even after so long, some of the original equipment remained serviceable, said JR Boone.

This, for example, included the spray lance, which was upgraded to improve the spray pattern rather than being replaced entirely, noted the equipment supplier. The original JR Boone control system was reused, the company added.

JR Boone said it supplied the new mixer drum and motor, plus a frame that allowed the unit to be installed into exactly the same factory position as before, so production could continue as seamlessly as possible.

“We did look around at alternatives, but nobody offered us the combination of quality equipment and experience that we got from JR Boone,” explained Yara plant engineer Sean Molloy. “They gave us a lot of advice, especially on how we could develop the spray system.

“Once we got into the detail of the project and discovered that we could re-use parts of the original mixer, and that Boone’s would take away and recycle the original drum for us, the decision became very straightforward.”