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HammerTek Corporation presents a processing application of current conveying technology by Western Paving Corporation.

At its plant in Denver, Colorado, Western Paving Corporation is committed to maintaining an efficient, safe and clean facility. A producer of 29 different paving products, including recycled pavements made from the materials shown here, Western Paving used the HammerTek Smart Elbow to solve a tough conveying problem. Steel sweep elbows were regularly wearing through. In a fifteen ton per hour dust collection system this situation was unacceptable.
           
At the plant granite is unloaded from railcars and moved by front-end loader and conveyer belt to a crusher. Once the granite is reduced to the proper size it's moved to a rotary kiln. Granite dust is collected at the end of the kiln and pneumatically conveyed to a mixer and combined with oil. This mixture is then added back into the process as a binding agent which is essential to the production of asphalt.

If the dust collection system goes down, production stops. When leaks occurred in the sweep elbows of the dust collection system the Smart Elbow provided the solution to this problem.  The Smart Elbow virtually eliminates elbow wear, streamer formation, product fines, and plugging and surging in processing applications.

In this demonstration using a transparent elbow and smoke, the operation of the patented Smart Elbow can be clearly seen. During conveying, a loose slowly rotating ball of material forms in the vortice chamber, cushioning impact and deflecting flow through the elbow. Note the deflection zone occurring at the lower right of the elbow.

Plastic pellets are thrown against the outside wall when conveyed through this sweep elbow, causing damage to both. The Smart Elbow conveys by deflection not impact with elbow walls. Due to this flow controlled action of the Smart Elbow, the same plastic pellets are evenly distributed across the outflow.

The HammerTek Smart Elbow saves space, saves time, and saves money. These Smart Elbows replace the steel sweep elbows that wore through approximately every six weeks, even though the sweeps were equipped with concrete strong backs. The elbows are located in the return line which carries granite dust from the rotary kiln. When the sweeps wore through the operation had to shut down until repairs could be made and cleanup performed. The Smart Elbows are lasting around 5 years in this highly abrasive application.

Western Paving produces 29 different paving products, including recycled products for its own extensive paving operation as well as for others. Trucks are loaded from four storage silos which can each hold 300 Tons of asphalt. The plant can produce 500 Tons an hour, and run 16 hours a day. The use of the HammerTek Smart Elbow allowed Western Paving to benefit from the unique advantages the Smart Elbow offers over virtually all other elbow types. Fewer line shutdowns, lower conveying system maintenance expense, and fewer environmental concerns.