Aggregate Industry Case Study: Tillicoultry Quarries Ltd – Stockton Concrete Plant

“I like that there is a guarantee as we know if anything goes wrong it can be replaced"

Craig Gowland – Relief Manager

About the customer

Established in 1931 by RW Menzies at Craigfoot Quarry in Tillicoultry, Tillicoultry Quarries identified the need for construction materials to be supplied to the local market. Now, nearly ninety years on, the business is one of the largest suppliers of quarry materials in Scotland and has developed a reputation for quality products and service excellence.

Tillicoultry Quarries is still family owned and people driven. The company continues to grow, building on its successes, and transforming the supply and delivery of aggregates and other construction material through its investments in plant, equipment and people.

Project Background

Plant Manager Chris Hanratty called us to the site as they were suffering with water in the compressed airlines. Even though the site had recently purchased a new compressor, the compressed air lines were installed a long time ago and the setup was causing moisture to build up in the airlines. For example, moisture getting into the silos through the aeration system was a chief concern to the Plant Manager because this leads to very costly and wasteful problems. The damp air would cause the cement particles stick together which then results in a loss of product and can cause serious damage to the silos. The last time this recent problem occurred, the team had to remove and dispose of 6 tonnes of cement from a silo, causing a substantial amount of wasted cement as well as being a time and labour-intensive problem to have to rectify.

Chris was therefore very keen to resolve the issues with moisture in order to improve the efficiency of the site and prevent any unnecessary wastage, so after hearing about Expel from Area Production Manager Richard Hamilton, Chris was optimistic that he had found the perfect solution to this problem.

Why did the Stockton site choose Expel?

After careful consideration of all available solutions, the team knew that Expel units were going to be more effective than a refrigerant dryer for their particular site set up and requirements. This is because refrigerant dryers have numerous issues for concrete plants. First and foremost, refrigerant dryers are not suitable for installations where the piping is installed in ambient temperatures below the dryer dew point. This is a huge limitation for concrete plants seeing as a lot of the compressed air lines are outside where the temperature is likely to drop below the dryer dew point.

Another potential solution for the site was to install traditional compressed air filtration products. However, these products are problematic and have significant limitations. For instance, standard filters usually only remove one compressed air contaminate per unit, so to achieve the same air quality as a single Expel unit you would usually have to have up to three ordinary compressed air filters. This creates an accumulative larger energy usage because more energy is required to move the compressed air along through more filters across the pneumatic lines. These filters also retain the contaminates they collect and deposit them into a disposable internal element which means the more these filters are used, the greater the energy usage required for the air to pass through. Further problems arise with these filters because the more contaminates they collect, the less effective they become.

In contrast, Expel will guarantee that all liquid water, oil emulsion fluids and solid particulates are always removed down to 1 micron. This is hugely beneficial to concrete plants because it means that Expel will still remove these substances when installed at point of use, even at low temperatures. Furthermore, Expel does not contain any disposable or replacement elements. This means that Expel will always operate at 99.999% efficiency. As a result, the Plant Manager took the well-informed decision to install several Expel units at point of use across the site.

Relief Manager Craig Gowland immediately recognised the benefit of Expel for the site. After having Expel installed for just a few days, the Expel unit had already removed a large volume of water from compressed air lines. This water would have otherwise carried on down the lines to the silo aeration system causing extensive damage. Craig is very well versed with the limitations of other solutions and knew that if the site installed refrigerant dryers and/or traditional compressed air filters, they would still experience issues with water in the compressed air lines. As a result, the Relief manager was delighted that they had now discovered the perfect solution to the problems the site had previously faced.

Additionally, the Expel is guaranteed for 5 years giving peace of mind that in the unlikely scenario that something goes wrong with the filters, then you simply need to get in touch with the Original AVG sales team.