Continuing in our philosophy of offering only the highest quality process equipment, Orthos have recently made an arrangement with HERBST Maschinenfabrik GmbH to sell their range of tailor made planetary mixers to the Pharmaceutical, Cosmetic, Chemical and Food industries here in the UK.

Planetary mixers are normally used for mixing medium to high viscosity materials, for example: gels, creams, lotions, adhesives, pastes, dressings, marinades.  HERBST Planetary mixers are available for both laboratory and production purposes with mixing bowl sizes from 2 to 1250 litres respectively.

We’re working on new product pages; meanwhile call us for further information.

“Promoting the Excellence of Young Academics”

Once again our principals Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich are co-organising this prestigious competition for young academics, with a prize fund of several thousand Euros.  The top three will go on to present their papers as invited lecturers at the “International Colloquium on Refractories” in Aachen.

What is the Gustav Eirich Award?
The aim of this award is to promote ideas and support young talent in technical disciplines.  The Gustav Eirich Award is a contribution to the long-term success of companies in the refractories production and application industries.

For what is the Eirich Award presented?
- Dissertations
   and / or
- Independent research work with a scientific content equal to that of a dissertation
   e.g. doctorates, post-doc work (completed no longer than two years ago).

On what topics?
Refractories-based topics from the fields of:
 - Raw materials
 - Materials and components
 - Application technologies

Topics concerning the studies of materials under the heading “high-temperature materials” or, in the future, under the term “modern refractories”.

The submissions will be judged by an international jury.


Further Information from:

ECRef European Center for Refractories gem. GmbH
“Gustav Eirich Award”
Rheinstr. 60a
56203 Höhr-Grenzhausen
GERMANY
Phone: +49 2624 9473171
Fax: +49 2624 9473200
Mail: info@eirich-award.eu
[Deadline: 31st May 2011]

Good luck!

Key components of this Eirich R09W intensive pan mixer are: (library photo)

1. Inclined, rotating mixing pan
2. Single rotating mixing tool
3. Adjustable, multi-purpose scraper tool

Special feature:

The pan cover can be raised hydraulically, lifting the mixing tool and scraper for easy access to the product-contact parts.

Suitable for the following duties in a batch-wise mode of operation:

• Mixing
• Granulating
• Dispersing
• Agglomerating
• Disagglomerating
• Plasticising
• Kneading

This mixer is about to undergo a complete refurbishment by skilled engineers at Orthos using original Eirich parts and will be available within approximately 10 – 12 weeks.  When complete, the mixer will be supplied with the usual warranty.


Selling Price: £ SOLD

For further details please call us on 01858 464246
or email eric.davis@orthos.uk.com

We recently made a trip around central and southern Holland to visit three of Orthos’ principals involved in process equipment.  The main event of the expedition was a European agent meeting at °Celsius, the screw heat exchanger division of Van Beek, for whom Orthos have recently become UK agents – more news on that later.

Tema Process
Following an early flight out we were off and running, arriving in Heerde (nr. Zwolle) just in time for lunch with Albert Brand and the irrepressible Henk Dijkman of Tema Process.  After a tour round the new factory, during which we saw several machines in production, we stopped off at the test centre to see some interesting new developments coming next year – some we’ve no doubt will be very popular in the UK once Tema complete their prototype test programs later this year.  Once we’d admired one of the new service vans we spent the rest of the afternoon discussing some ideas for a biomass-related process.

Lindor
The next destination on our tour was Dordrecht; Holland’s oldest city, and home to Lindor Products (the gentle touch in mixing) where we had a meeting with MD Bastiaan Soeteman.  We hadn’t been at Lindor for a while so it was great to see the guys again and meet some new faces.

Engineering manager Akko van der Lee took time out to show us Lindor’s clever new ultrasonic liquid injection system for spray-coating powders and granules with liquid additives.  This package features extremely accurate control of droplet size and flow pattern allowing even distribution inside the mixing drum.  Potential applications include detergent additive coating and tea flavouring.

Highlight of the visit was our introduction to Lindor’s latest addition to their mixer range, a 100 litre pilot scale unit.  Conceived at customer request to bridge the gap between the old L70 and the next largest L200, the L100 is a mobile unit with a common feed & discharge port so the mixer is filled or emptied depending on its orientation (see video).

°Celsius
The final leg of the journey would take us to the municipality of ‘s-Hertogenbosch – commonly abbreviated to “Den Bosch” (fortunately for us!)  We were in new territory here and it represented our first visit to the headquarters of Orthos’ latest principal, Van Beek, for whom we will be selling their screw heat exchangers, marketed as °Celsius.  Able to heat, cool or dry powders and granules, °Celsius are specialists in thermal screw transport in varied applications ranging from chocolate powder cooling to egg shell drying.  Peter-Paul Rutten welcomed us to the European agents meeting where we enjoyed two days of product training, presentations, a factory tour and two local client visits led by Marco Geradts.

Through our association with Eirich Maschinenfabrik and Tema Process, Orthos already have a long experience in thermal processing technology.  Our sales manager Andrew Reynolds commented “Through our new relationship with Van Beek we look forward to be able to offer UK clients an even wider range of heating, cooling and drying process equipment to suit every application”.

Martijn van den Hil showed us around °Celsius’s test centre, explaining the main features of each version of their screw heat exchangers.

So as our trip around Holland came to an end, a dramatic lightening storm over Amsterdam concluded our trip (and delayed our return flight) but we were satisfied with our accomplishments and keen to get back home to spread the word.

Coming to a plant near you soon... one of the new Tema Process service vans

Celsius screw heat exchanger test rig with heating/cooling package beside

Inside a paddle type screw heat exchanger test unit at the Celsius test centre

All three styles of screw flight are incorporated into this exhibition unit from Celsius

If you are an engineer or manager involved in the handling/processing of loose bulk solids materials and powders (and you want to increase your power!) then the next SHAPA Knowledge Conference may be for you. 

Scheduled for Tuesday 5th October 2010 at Loughborough University’s Imago Holywell Park, the conference offers delegates an opportunity to hear about the latest regulatory issues, their interpretation and implementation and the latest ideas and thinking on different aspects of solids handling techniques from some of the foremost authorities in their fields. 

Ten punchy presentations in two streams during the day cover diverse topics such as explosion safety, ATEX/DSEAR conformance, improving productivity, batch and continuous mixing, conveying technologies and others.  Delegates may select the sessions that best suit their needs, with efficiency and economy at the heart of many of the presentations.  All will receive material from every session, whether individually attended or not. 

Focused discussion groups on the topics presented give a further opportunity to meet and learn from speakers and other delegates.  In addition there will be table top displays illustrating techniques and capabilities of a number of companies, including Orthos.

We’ll have info on all our powder processing and plant safety equipment/systems.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you, at last now you can buy an Eirich mixer for your laboratory for less than ten thousand pounds.  The L1 newly released by Eirich is the small size mixer with full-size technology incorporating the following process capabilities: mixing, pelletising, coating, kneading and dispersing – all in one unit!

Make no mistake, this isn’t a flakey toy mixer, the L1 is a genuine Eirich machine featuring a choice of agitator style, infinitely variable tool speeds, low-weight quick release mixing pan (so you can clean it out easily between batches) forwards & reverse tool rotation, adjustable inclination (0 – 30°) and a touch screen display.  Weighing in at only 46 kg, this is a true bench top unit that anyone can use.

So if you’re involved in the carbon, catalysts, ceramics, friction material, glass, minerals or refractory industries (or indeed anywhere that high shear intensive mixing is necessary) then the L1 must be the next purchase for your lab.

We’ll be posting more information soon but meanwhile contact us for more details.

After making some last minute finishing touches to our stand the night before, we had a minor panic on Tuesday morning because our main display on the Eirich mixer stand wouldn’t operate as required.  However
a quick swap of two wires rectified the problem and we were good to go.  This unit was an Eirich RV12W mixer of 400 litre capacity that also featured a tipping head to make cleaning as easy as possible.

Over from Eirich was Dirk Heuer, one of the technical sales guys and a concrete specialist.  Like the rest of us Dirk was happy to be out in the sunshine and looking forward to a well attended show – just as well because the night before he’d taken a ride from Manchester airport to Buxton with a taxi driver we nicknamed Dick Turpin (the highway robber).

Down at the Allgaier stand were Armin Heussler and Gerd Stölzner, two more German colleagues amazed by the British weather.  As Hillhead debutantes, neither knew what to expect in terms of visitor numbers and interest level, but after day one Gerd commented that despite only a few enquiries, all of them related to real projects with investment behind, so he was satisfied with the quality.  Brand new for the Allgaier tumbler screen we had the “G-section” sealing for external screen decks.  Made from silicon, the main advantage of this sealing profile is that it can be wrapped around the screen frame and held in place without glue, therefore doing away with the flat gaskets normally glued to the cylinders above and below the screen deck, saving time and money (More news coming soon).

Wednesday was similarly warm and dusty but naturally most people’s minds were on the World Cup matches scheduled for later that day, and consequently we noticed less visitors circulating our area of the quarry.  Several hours later with England already safely through to the knockout stage, and Dirk on his way back to the airport (this time in a pre-booked taxi at half the price of his inbound one) we learned that Germany would be England’s opponents in the last sixteen of the tournament, which naturally was the main talking point of the evening for these English/German colleagues!

Despite the weather turning grey and wet in the morning, Thursday still seemed fairly well attended and we met several familiar faces from client’s in the building materials and minerals industries. After a rough ride in the last two years, the general feeling seeming to be one of cautious optimism, which was good news to hear.

Standing room only at our neighbours Terex Finlay!

Case Construction had an awesome motorbike display!

Watching the big stuff in action at the demo area

World renowned for their mixing technology, Eirich will exhibit their brand new R16 intensive pan mixer for the first time in the UK on the Orthos stand at Hillhead 2010.

The new mixer is a testament to the high degree of sophistication that is found in the concrete and building materials industry of today. Its versatility and high specific energy input make it particularly suitable for facing and speciality concretes.

Whilst incorporating the well proven principle of the rotating pan, the ‘R’ series is a simpler design to the older ‘D’ series mixer that is still widely used throughout the concrete industry. Fitted with a single multi-level mixing tool, and fixed pan and wall scrapers, the complete batch of material is swept into the mixing zone on every pan revolution. As a consequence, the applied energy is efficiently transferred into the mix, in direct proportion to the speed of the mixing tool. This tool may run in the opposite or same direction as the pan – particularly useful when light weight aggregates or fibres are to be mixed.

The R16 has a 500-750 litre capacity (800-1200kgs) and matches precisely the demands of today’s industry, short mixing times, low energy consumption, high mix quality, batch repeatability and low maintenance.

Stand: M 20
Contact: Orthos (Engineering) Ltd
No.2 The Point Business Park
Market Harborough, Leics. LE16 7QU
Tel: 01858 464246 | sales@orthos.uk.com
www.orthos.uk.com/hillhead2010