Aggregate Industry Case Study: LafargeHolcim Group: Aggregate Industries, Bardon Hill Locomotive Train

“We tested the Expel filter in a side-by-side test against a standard filter and the Expel was far more effective at protecting our equipment.”

Ashley Bowyer – Preventative Maintenance Engineer – Aggregate Industries

About the customer

Aggregate Industries is a proud member of the LafargeHolcim Group, which is the leading global building materials and solutions company with around 70,000 employees in over 80 countries.

Aggregate Industries produce and supply an array of construction materials including everything from aggregates, asphalt, ready-mix concrete and precast concrete products. Additionally, they produce, import and supply construction materials, export aggregates and offer national road surfacing and contracting services. They operate 200 sites and employ around 3,700 people.

Project Background

Preventive Maintenance Engineer Ashley Bowyer had long been experiencing what he termed “historical issues” with water in his compressed air systems on two locomotive trains at the Bardon Hill site in Leicester.

The brakes on the trains operate pneumatically. Without compressed air, the trains would be unable to halt when needed, or offer a smooth ride for cargo. The brakes can cease and ultimately fail if impurities enter the compressed air lines. These were problems known all too well to Ashley Bowyer. At least once a week, Bowyer’s team were having to strip out the brakes, free them, reassemble and refit the brakes.

Like all compressed air systems, the solution, of course, is to stop contaminated compressed air entering in the first place. Ashley Bowyer decided to take action against the problems and install an inline compressed air filter that REALLY WORKS!

“...on a cursory inspection of pipework internals at both the outlet of the Expel and further along the pipeline to the brakes, there was no sign of moisture ('looked bone dry' was the report I received). Again, this was in contrast to the 'older system' which showed visible and tactile signs of moisture (felt damp in the pipe)”.

Ashley Bowyer – Preventative Maintenance Engineer – Aggregate Industries.

Why did Aggregate Industries choose Expel?

After hearing about Expel from Steve Pointon (see this case study here), Mr Bowyer was keen to test Expel for himself so he installed an Expel on one of the two trains that the site operate so that he could compare the operation of the train running with Expel and the train running with a traditional filter.

In response to the success that all the sites who have installed Expel have had, Operational Procurement Manager Sam Henson has requested that our sales team go to all Aggregate Industry sites in the country and produce a report of where Expel needs to be installed across all the sites. This is because no matter what the compressed air application is, Expel is a high efficiency compressed air filter that can make sites more efficient by eliminating production downtime caused by liquids and particulates down to 1 micron; save sites money on replacement filter elements; and completely eliminate the need for a refrigerant dryer on most sites, saving ongoing maintenance costs and reducing energy bills.