Step to safety

Altro, a manufacturer of safety flooring and wall cladding solutions, has been expanding its Hertfordshire operations for a number of years in a bid to increase its capacity.

Altro pioneered the world’s first safety flooring recycling system, and produces over 5.4 million square metres of safety flooring each year.

The company, which prides itself on providing high quality, high-wear flooring materials, recently developed a new product range of safety flooring. This meant it required a new sieving machine for use in production.

Having worked previously with Russell Finex, Altro asked the supplier to provide it with a sieving solution to meet its exact requirements.

Recycled glass granules are one of the materials used to increase the hardness of the flooring while adding to its robust safety features.

In addition, the use of recycled glass conforms to Altro’s sustainability plans to remove fewer resources from the Earth.

Before the glass is fed into the flooring, it is passed through a sieving system via a hopper where oversize particles are removed, leaving the fine material needed. The material of the correct particle size is then added to the product line.

Having purchased two Finex Separators from Russell Finex eight years ago, Altro says it has formed a strong relationship with the company, so when a new sieving solution was required, it contacted the company.

After a short consultation, an on site trial was arranged for a 600mm diameter Russell Compact Sieve to be installed within the new processing line where staff could monitor the effectiveness and suitability of the machine.

Sieving recycled glass during the trial proved very successful and it was decided that the Compact Sieve was the machine needed to meet the production demand.

“It was important for us to be able to trial the sieve at our facility prior to purchase. It allowed us to put the machine through the toughest conditions and it needed to succeed to ensure Altro’s Hertfordshire plant that product quality would not be compromised,” says Richard Holt, manufacturing shift team leader.

The Russell Compact Sieve is a versatile check screener ideal for high capacity screening of a wide range of materials, he says.

The rubber suspension system of the sieve, when compared to spring mounted sieves, provides better transmission of vibration to the mesh surface, improved sieving accuracy and higher throughput per unit mesh area. In addition the rubber suspension is quieter to operate.

Another one of its key features is the ease of dismantling the machine.

“We needed a system that would allow our operators to easily disassemble the machine for cleaning,” says Holt. The quick release clamping system provides tool-free disassembly of the sieve deck allowing cleaning to be undertaken quickly and easily thus reducing valuable production downtime. The slim line, straight-through design of the Compact Sieve enabled Altro to mount the sieve below the hopper, with material passing straight through to storage once sieved, says Holt.

Furthermore, with a head height less than half the height of a traditional sieving machine, the compact design of the sieve meant it could fit neatly into the new production plant without using excessive headroom.

Due to the irregular and varying sizes of the glass particles as well as the desire to obtain fine particles, pegging of the mesh apertures often occurred.

To overcome this, deblinding discs were fitted underneath the mesh of the sieve, and this has also prolonged the mesh life.

An Ultrasonic Deblinding System is another method for eliminating mesh blinding or pegging, however deblinding discs were used in this instance as the vibrating nylon discs impacted on the underside of the sieve mesh, dislodging the pegged particles.

“Our long relationship with Russell Finex has been cemented with excellent high quality machinery and aftermarket support,” says Holt.

Russell Finex manufactures and supply sieves, filters and separators to improve product quality, enhance productivity, safeguard worker health, and ensure liquids and powders are contamination-free.

The company supplies a variety of industries with applications, including food pharmaceuticals, chemicals, adhesives, plastisols, paint, coatings, metal powders and ceramics.