Van Beek was commissioned by the English company Entecon to supply three specially designed tubular conveyors to the Egyptian paint factory SIPES. These screw conveyors tip various raw materials for paint from storage silos into dissolvers (mixers), all in the correct quantities.
Sipes is the trade name for quality paint in the Arab world. The factory of this leading paint manufacturer is located in the city ‘10th of Ramadan’ near Cairo. It is a progressive company equipped with the most modern equipment where both water based and solvent based coatings (such as acrylic paints, plastic coating products and alkyd based paint types) are produced.
The manufacture of paint comprises a number of phases. It starts with pre-mixing (pre-dispersing) in which the raw materials are weighed and metered. This is followed by milling (dispersing) and mixing where the remaining components of the recipe are added. The final phases are filling and cleaning.
The installations supplied by Van Beek and Entecon are used in the pre-mixing phase of the production process. The raw materials for making paint are calcium carbonate, chalk, titanium and dioxide. These are brought in using big bags and 25kg bags and tipped into six silos with the help of six Entecon Big Bag unloading stations (with built-in facility for tipping 25kg bags) and six Entecon Aero Mechanical Conveyors. Under each silo is a customised tubular conveyor made by Van Beek, that tips the products from the six silos in the right quantities into the six dissolver/mixers (dissolvers).
The whole powder transport, from the bag unloading stations to the silos, is housed in a separate room for explosion safety reasons. From this room the screws fill the mixers that are set up on the other side of a wall. The screws pass through the wall, such that the electrical section is in the safe room.
In 2003 Van Beek had already supplied SIPES in Egypt with three similar screw conveyor systems for conveying powders. These screws are still operating to their full satisfaction which is why Van Beek has been involved in this project again.
The three new screws for SIPES are 4 metre long tubular conveyors made of stainless steel 304 with a diameter of 400 mm. The capacity per screw is over 40m3 per hour and the screws bridge a conveyor height of 1.40 metres. The filling level is 50% because the screws are designed with a starting and main pitch. ‘Pitch’ means the distance between two screw blades. By keeping this distance small in the inlet section (starting pitch) and then increasing it during transport (main pitch) the powders have more space during transport. The motors are fitted with a built-in frequency regulator to simplify the control and regulation of the number of revolutions. They are also fitted with a separate display and cable for controlling the frequency regulator on the motor. All the systems are supplied by Van Beek in accordance with the new directives and documentation legislation in the Netherlands, as well as abroad.
Van Beek and Entecon are both involved in powder transport, but supply the market with totally different products, normally for different applications. Sometimes there are overlaps when Aero Mechanical Conveyors and screw conveyors are necessary for an application. In these cases Entecon has consulted Van Beek for many years. Quality, expert advice and good service are very important factors in Entecon’s choice of Van Beek. This cooperation has resulted in a pleasant relationship between the two companies which has lasted many years.
Entecon has a lot of experience in the coatings industry. The products mentioned and in particular Titanium dioxide are extremely suitable for transport using Aero Mechanical Conveyors because of the cohesive character of TiO2 etc. Entecon introduced the Aero Mechanical Conveyor in 1963 and has since then constantly further developed and extended its range of powder handling equipment. This is why Entecon’s slogan is: ‘First Choice is ENTECON for almost 50 years’.
