Bucket Elevators for MS Industries Silica Flour Russellville, AL

General Description

MS Industries (MSI) is an industry leader in the developmental research and mining of high grade industrial silica sand products. Recently, MSI built one of the largest industrial grade silica sand and ground silica flour processing facilities in the United States. The Russellville, AL facility processes American mined silica sand into foundry sand, frac sand, silica flour, and custom varieties for use in glass products and various other industries.

MSI contacted KWS to partner in the design and supply of mechanical conveying equipment, including screw conveyors, weigh belt feeders, and bucket elevators needed to transport the bulk silica sand from its arrival via railcar or truck throughout the milling and finishing processes. The two KWS bucket elevators were furnished with the 4B Components Watchdog Super Elite control units to provide an accurate hazard monitoring system. Monitoring belt speed, belt misalignment, bearing temperature, and pulley movement aids in the prevention of accelerated wear of the elevator’s components which could hinder the plant operations. The collaboration between MSI and KWS helped increase the production capacity of the facility from 100,000 tons in 2017 up to 300,000 tons by the end of 2018.

Design Parameters

1. Product Type: Silica Flour
2. Material Density: 80 to 100 Lbs. per Cubic Foot
3. Capacity: 200,000 Pounds per Hour
4. Duty: 24 Hours per Day, 7 Days per Week

KWS Advantages

MSI contacted KWS during the early stages of the project’s preliminary design phase to inquire about our offering of bucket elevators. Our highly trained KWS Sales Engineers worked with the plant management at MSI to gather all the critical design and performance specifications for the equipment. MSI provided KWS with basic bucket elevator drawings that MSI were currently using at another facility. The KWS engineering team was trusted to provide the ideal design solution for the two new bucket elevators and created a 3D general arrangement models to simulate the clearance between each piece of equipment.

Special Features

The small powder-like particle size of silica can be extremely dusty if it enters the atmosphere and could cause health issues if inhaled. The KWS bucket elevators are totally enclosed and dust-tight using heavy-duty gauge steel. The heavy-duty design utilized abrasion and high impact resistant Nylon buckets with ductile iron digger buckets every tenth bucket to lower the weight of the belt/bucket assembly and power consumption without any reduction in performance.

The 4B Components Watchdog Super Elite control units were easy to install and simple to set-up. The system comes with sensors that detect belt misalignment, belt speed & slip, bearing temperature, pulley misalignment and plug chute conditions. When one of the sensors detects a hazard, it sounds an alarm and provides shutdown control of the bucket elevator to prevent catastrophic failures that could lead to costly repairs.

For each bucket elevator, KWS provided a work platform with a jib crane so maintenance personnel would have full access to all sides of the bucket elevator head section. The jib cranes are used to raise any necessary maintenance items up to the work platform.