Aggregate Industry Case Study: Hanson’s National Ready-Mix Concrete Sites

Water in compressed air was a leading cause of downtime at Hanson sites. By providing a permanent solution against compressed air contamination, Expel has successfully eradicated these issues.

“I would recommend it to any industry and operation that uses compressed air systems and anyone that suffers from moisture in the lines. We’ve not had a single issue since it was installed.”

Emily Stevenson – District Operations Manager – Hanson

Project Background

Hanson sites suffered from moisture in the compressed air for many years. It had been the cause of high part replacement costs, higher energy bills, and increased maintenance costs. For example, solenoid valves would frequently fail. Once moisture has damaged a solenoid valve, you cannot simply repair it. You have no option but to replace it. Therefore, water in compressed air was causing ongoing part replacement and production downtime costs, as processes could not continue until the on-site maintenance teams found the time to replace them.

Hanson had long been searching for a solution to eliminate problems caused by water in compressed air. For example, many Hanson sites had dryers. However, the dryers had severe limitations, and despite costing the plants money to purchase, run and maintain, moisture was still present in the lines. Pneumatic equipment continued to be damaged regularly.

“Since installing here at Nottingham, we haven’t had a single issue with a solenoid. If we think back maybe three months, we had 1 issue every week.”

Emily Stevenson – District Operations Manager – Hanson

Why did Hanson choose Expel?

Unlike any other solution Hanson had explored, Expel worked! Expel offers a bespoke approach to compressed air filtration. Original AVG has designed Expel using computational fluid dynamics to guarantee the removal of all liquid water, oil emulsion fluids and solid particulates to 1 micron. Refrigerant dryers contain traditional-style filters to remove liquid water. However, these filters have disposable internal elements made of sponge or mesh-like materials. As these elements retain moisture, their performance deteriorates, and pneumatic equipment is left vulnerable to damage from liquid water. Expel was the perfect failsafe for Hanson sites.

After installing Expel, Hanson quickly found they had a real solution to this costly problem. Solenoid valves were no longer failing, which resulted in an annual saving of £775 per site. Additionally, Hanson quickly realised (thanks to Expel) that they no longer needed the dryers and could disconnect them immediately. In turn, this eradicated all the costs associated with dryers, which, according to Hanson, saved sites around £857 per year.

Given these remarkable results, Hanson launched a national project to improve the compressed air quality at their concrete plants. To date, Hanson has installed Expel on over 100 concrete plants.

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