KWS Manufacturing

Expedited Delivery of Screw Conveyors for Conveying Perlite Fines

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Nestle Purina PetCare PlantPlant Name and Location

Nestle Purina PetCare
Bloomfield, MO

General Description

Nestle Purina is one of world’s largest pet products companies devoted to pet nutrition and animal welfare. As one of their many products, Nestle Purina manufactures pet litter for both dogs and cats. Pet litter is an absorbent and consists of many different ingredients. One of the key ingredients is expanded perlite. Expanded perlite is very light and free-flowing, but is also very abrasive. Special care is required when designing equipment for this type of product. KWS had already supplied a very special screw feeder to accurately meter expanded perlite from a storage hopper to feed the downstream processing equipment. For this portion of the project, Nestle Purina required a new system of screw conveyors to transfer expanded perlite from a weigh belt feeder for their new process. KWS worked with Nestle Purina and a third-party engineering firm to develop an excellent solution on this project.

Design Parameters

  1. Product Type: Expanded Perlite
  2. Material Density: 5 Lbs. per Cubic Foot
  3. Capacity: 720 Cubic Feet per Hour
  4. Duty: 24 Hours per Day, 7 Days per Week
KWS worked with a consulting engineer to optimize the screw feeder design.

KWS Advantages

Nestle Purina contacted KWS because they were looking for an experienced manufacturer to design and build a screw conveyor system to meet the expedited scheduling requirements of the project. They had recently developed a new light weight, super-absorbent cat litter product and needed screw conveyors to unload and convey material from new hoppers for a plant expansion. Nestle Purina had existing downstream equipment and required a temporary system of screw conveyors to make pet litter while the permanent system was being designed and built. The Customer placed the order in late-November and required the system to be delivered by the second week of December. The quick delivery schedule would be a project management, engineering, and manufacturing challenge and KWS excelled at the challenge. Even with several days of reduced efficiency due to winter weather, KWS was able to ship the equipment on time.

Special Features

KWS utilized their extensive inventory of stock screw conveyor components to provide the quickest delivery possible. KWS engineers designed the screw conveyors by accessing an extensive library of parts and drawings standards. Nestle Purina required certified drawings of the equipment to give to their installers and KWS was able to produce the information they needed in only a few days. The technical information provided by KWS to the installation contractor reduced the time on site for installation and start-up. KWS kept all of Nestle Purina’s specific requirements in mind such as correct motor mounting positions and specific paint colors for this project.

Testimonial

"Thanks for the quick delivery of the conveyors! Everything is working great!"

Larry Smith, Site Supervisor – Nestle Purina

Perlite

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