ISPE-DVC Vendor Night in Philadelphia

Tom McDonough,  Matak LLC, talking with the attendees at the ISPE-DVC Vendor Night at Citizens Bank Park Philadelphia PA. 10 Feb 2015. The International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers, Delaware Valley Chapter, offers suppliers the opportunity to meet and greet local customers in the greater Philadelphia area at their annual tabletop show.

Submitted by Fred DeCicco.

Sharpe Mixers and Hayward Gordon - A New Team!

Sharpe Mixers is very pleased to announce we are joining forces with Hayward Gordon. Based in Seattle, Washington, Sharpe Mixers has served customers for the past 60 years providing advanced mixing solutions in many industries including pulp & paper, chemical, industrial, pharmaceutical and sanitary markets. Hayward Gordon, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, manufactures mixers, pumps, and engineered systems for fluid handling applications in a range of industries including mining, water and wastewater, petroleum, mineral processing and many others.

Hayward Gordon intends to make a significant investment in plant, equipment and people in Sharpe's Seattle factory to better serve customers in the global market. Jay Dinnison, President of Sharpe Mixers, commented on the transaction, "We are proud of our achievements at Sharpe Mixers, and are excited about the future growth opportunities that this partnership brings to our organization. I see this as a positive for all parties involved."

John Hayward, EVP of Hayward Gordon commented on the acquisition of Sharpe, "The fit between the two businesses is well aligned from both a product and market standpoint. Sharpe brings strength in small to medium-sized mixers and in chemical, industrial, pharmaceutical, and sanitary markets whereas Hayward Gordon has been strong in medium to large mixers in mineral processing, oil & gas, and water/wastewater treatment. 
 
Bill Dubé, CEO of Hayward Gordon, commented on the transaction, "We are delighted with the excellent synergies for the combined entity. The product fit between Hayward Gordon and Sharpe is complementary and we now offer a broader range of mixers from 1/3 HP to 500 HP. In addition, our combined sales channels will allow us to better serve our markets and support customer's needs."

A controlling interest in Hayward Gordon was previously acquired by Element Partners and it serves as a platform for acquisitions of pump and mixer manufacturers focused on abrasive, harsh duty, or other engineered fluid handling applications.

For more information about Hayward Gordon, visit www.haywardgordon.com. For more information on Sharpe Mixers, visit www.sharpemixers.com.

Midwest Food Processors Association Directory

The Midwest Food Processors Association, Inc. is a trade association that advocates on behalf of food processing companies and affiliated industries in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  Established in 1905 as the Wisconsin Canners Association, today the association represents a more diverse group of food processors on a variety of food issues.

Sharpe Mixers has been building mixers for the food and beverage industry for over 30 years.  From simple beverage syrup and juice concentrate blending to brew mash kettles and high viscosity products, successfully mixing a wide spectrum of food products has built a solid foundation of experience.

Share Mixers is proud to be a prominent listing in the MFPA's 2014-2015 directory.  For more information on our sanitary mixers, be sure and visit our website.

Sharpe Hyflo Impellers

A line of hydrofoil impellers that incorporate a split-hub design which is stronger, more adjustable, and easier to install and remove than conventional one-piece or bolted-blade impellers is available from Sharpe Mixers,

Inc. of Seattle, Washington.

Sharpe HYFLO Impellers feature four blades with a narrow, low-pitch section at the tip where the speed is fastest and a wider, higher-pitch section near the hub where it is slower for maximum efficiency. In 24” dia. and larger sizes, the blades are welded directly to a split-hub that can be attached anywhere on a shaft without a keyway, and is easy to adjust or remove.

Available in industrial and sanitary versions, the split-hub eliminates the need to cut and weaken a shaft with a keyway. For high torque applications,

Sharpe HYFLO Impellers’ fail-safe operation is achieved by welding torque pins to the shaft which fit into matching holes on the split-hub’s bore.

Suitable for new equipment and retrofit on existing agitators, impellers can be made from 316SS to titanium and other alloys in 3” to 210” dia. sizes.

 

Sharpe HYFLO Impellers with split-hubs are priced according to material, size, and quantity. Pricing is available upon request. One-piece impellers are also offered.

 

Submitted by,

Fred DeCicco

Understanding Motor Overloads Caused by Low Voltage

Motor overloads are a common industrial problem when motors are not protected adequately.  This can include incorrectly sized circuit breakers or no circuit panel at all.  It can also be due to an undervoltage situation.

The definition of undervoltage is the condition when the applied voltage drops to 90% less than the motor's rated voltage for at least 1 minute.  Low-voltage situations occur when the voltage demand exceeds what the line can deliver.  This can be caused by a number of reasons; a transformer can act as a choke, restricting the amount of total power that gets through when demand is high.  Maybe the demand from newly installed equipment sharing the same line exceeds what the line can deliver.  In some cases, a motor with a long cable run can drop the voltage on a circuit, resulting in low voltage to that motor.  Brief low-voltage conditions can occur when a large load is started up unexpectedly, or when power is shorted to ground or another line.  Even loose cable connections can be the culprit.

To understand how low-voltage effects electric motors, one must understand the applied voltage to motor torque ratio.  Torque changes as the square to the voltage applied.  So a 10% increase in voltage will result in a 21% increase in torque.  Conversely, a reduction to 90% of the rated voltage will result in a 19% reduction in torque.  A more severe undervoltage condition - say 20% below the rated value, will reduce the motor's torque to 64% of its rating, resulting in 156% motor overload condition and catastrophic failure.

When does overload come into play in a low-voltage situation?  When the motor torque decreases below the torque required by the load, the motor will stall.  This is a bad situation if not caught immediately, as the motor now simply becomes a generator of heat.  Increased heat can damage the motors windings and insulation if the low-voltage event is long enough in duration.  This damage is permanent, and will result in a shorter life span or even a catastrophic failure.  In a prolonged low-voltage event, the only motor that is safe is one that is turned off.

Quick response techniques and computer monitoring and control equipment can reduce or even eliminate the damage of low-voltage events.  Thermal protectors or condition-monitoring devices can detect abnormally high winding temperatures and automatically shut down the motor. 

Being proactive is key in avoiding serious problems.  And thanks to computers, most everything can be monitored and controlled more accurately now.  This includes the electric motors that you rely and depend on.

ISPE Boston Chapter Product Show

Sharpe Mixers exhibited at the ISPE Boston Chapter Product show on October 1, 2014.

The International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers encourages local chapters to produce these one-day exhibits.

They take place all around the country.  Sharpe Mixers participates in several of them, including Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

This is one of the biggest chapter product shows in the country, attracted several hundred vendors to Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.

This year’s show was the biggest ever.  Attendees kept up a constant flow through the two clubhouse exhibit areas.

Quite a few of our customers in the New England area stopped by to say hello and see what’s new at Sharpe Mixers.

Many of our customers also exhibit at this show, including vessel fabricators, systems integrators, consulting engineers and contractors.

These table top shows offer a lot of bang for the buck.

 

Look into ISPE Chapter exhibits, as well as other engineering and production societies like ASME, Mid-West Food Processors and others for opportunities.


Submitted by
Fred DeCicco
North American Sales Manager

Design of Blend Chest Agitators; Guidelines, Data Required and Agitator Sixing

Steven F. Drury, Director of Applications at Sharpe Mixers.

Sharpe Mixers Director of Applications Engineering Steve Drury, PE presented a paper Design of Blend Chest Agitators; Guidelines, Data Required and Agitator Sixing at the recent TAPPI sponsored PEERS conference in Tacoma Washington.

Steve’s paper covered what a mixer vendor needs to know from the user to be able to design a cost effective agitator for any dilute stock application:

Mixing and blending are critical to a successful pulp/paper mill operation. The mass concentration of the pulp suspensions (aka consistency) in chests must be uniform at all locations. This is typically done with open face high efficiency impellers (hydrofoils). Along with a properly sized agitator the proper chest design and feed/pump suction locations are also critical to uniform consistency. One method used to provide uniformity is the momentum method which this presentation is based on. The mathematical model for the momentum method will be presented along with guidelines for chest designs and agitator locations.

A successful agitator design relies on good data and information from the mill engineer such as geometry of the chest and the process information outlining what is expected of the agitator.

This presentation will describe what an agitator supplier must know to design the equipment and describe the “why” so the plant engineer can understand not only the importance of chest geometry, feed and pump suction locations, but the process information as well: stock characterization, throughput and temperature.  A good understanding of the relative importance of these design factors will help the plant engineer in making decisions for optimization, retrofits and upgrades.

A typical blend chest design will be used to illustrate the design steps.

Mixing of dilute stock (up to 6.0% OD consistency) is a very important unit operation in the pulp and paper industry; however very little published information is available for the plant engineer’s use to size a mixer. Standard mixer design books such as Handbook of Industrial Mixing (1) and Fluid Mixing Technology (2) have sections on pulp mixing but detailed procedures or design data is not included. To the best of this speaker’s knowledge the only detailed book on pulp and paper agitation is TAPPI’s Pulp and Paper Agitation (3) The procedures outlined in this book are based on the concept of momentum flux (4) also known as QV (Q for flow and V for velocity). Using this concept along with mixer power and flow equations a relationship of mixer impeller diameter and rotational speed can be developed.

In order to size a mixer (power, speed and geometry) knowledge of the application (process specification) is critical. Knowledge of the mechanical requirements (mechanical specification) will allow for geometric and strength design.

Once the process parameters and chest geometry are set the mixer can be sized for power, speed and impeller geometry. A sample problem will illustrate this procedure.

As chest geometry will have a significant effect on mixer sizing. A series of figures showing recommended geometries will be presented. 

Attention to mechanical design is important. Reliability, seal selection, bearing life, maintainece access etc. all contribute to capital and operational cost. A short description of critical speed, shaft design, service life and bearing life will be presented in order to understand the impact of these features for cost and reliability.

Evaluating competing designs can be challenging, as each vendor will more than likely have different selections for power and impeller speed. Some guidelines for comparison of operating costs vs. capital costs are shown along with process results (power, torque and QV)

Information on mixer design, evaluation, standards and science can be hard to find. A few published resources are presented for reference.

PEERS, an acronym for Pulping, Engineering, Environmental, Recycling, Sustainability, PEERS represents the most dynamic, forward leaning topics in the forest products arena today.  PEERS offers an expert-led program that has been proven to provide real-world results in each of these critical areas of the mill.  Planned and led by working professions, every session has been designed to address real challenges attendees face on the job.

Presenters and attendees are pulp and paper experts/equipment vendors/operators/consulting engineers and plant engineers directly involved with mill operations.  These are the people who "make it work".