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A&J Mixing Case Studies - Retrofit Success

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     A&J Mixing Case Studies - Retrofit Success  

     

    Company Background

    • Industry

      • Fertilizer Company

    • Issue

      • A customer contacted us to evaluate an existing competitor’s paddle mixer as a candidate for a mixer rebuild to a high performance paddle mixer for their pesticides plant.  This Pesticide plant had a change in how their end customers were analyzing the quality of their mix.  This particular customer had already reached out to the existing mixer supplier and had been told that they could neither retrofit this machine to meet the new specifications, nor did they manufacture a machine that could meet this new standard.  They were no longer meeting the new quality specification and had 120 days to meet the new specification or loose the business.
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    Example of one of our A&J Paddle Mixers 

    A&J Mixing's Solution

    Our Approach

    • We had been familiar with this company for a number of years. They visited with us at several trade shows in the past, and meet with us at Powder and Bulk Solids Show in Chicago asking if we had a means to solve a mixing challenge with the dispersion of pesticides on their granular products and invited us in to review their process.  We arrived at their factory and performed an existing mixer rebuild analysis where we inspect the machine, take measurements, interview the maintenance team to ensure bearings, gearbox and other components have been maintained properly and also to learn of any repetitive challenges they are having with the machine.  We then performed mixer demonstrations with one of our mobile test mixers so they could perform analysis of the product while we were generating our rebuild report and ROI report.
    • When we returned to our office, we evaluated the information garnered, ran through a series of stress calculations for the main shaft and gearbox torque evaluations. Once the review was complete, we discussed the mixer as a good candidate or not.  In this case, we decided we would proceed.

    Final Solution

    • The customer purchased our mixer rebuild kit which included custom designed High Performance Mixer paddles and our rotor arrangement, a UHMW liner for the bottom trough of their mixer, a hinged and clamped side access door arrangement for each side of the mixer (there were none on the original machine), a new high performance drive belt and sheave arrangement, and new main rotor shaft packing gland seals.  Once our components were on site, we were also contracted to supervise the install of the components with their maintenance team. The rebuild was completed in three days.
    • This customer was able to provide new samples from their retrofitted machine to their customer.  The new machine was approved and validated immediately and began satisfying their customer and allowed them to retain a very critical contract to their business.  While the goal of this retrofit was to improve the quality of the mix, which it did, there was an additional benefit.  
    • With the new A&J retrofit, the customer not only improved his quality of mix, but reduced his mixing time by 50%.  What the customer thought would only allow them to retain their customer actually increased their ability to produce products and afforded them an ROI of three months.

     

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    Example of our retrofit rebuild kits