A group of operations managers within a leading readymix concrete company shared a problem – carryback on conveyor belts. The wide variety of different belt cleaners installed across their plants were failing to clean belts sufficiently.
The poorly cleaned belts were depositing large amounts of material carryback underneath conveyors. This wasted material was time consuming to clean-up and led to increased manual handling for site operatives. The material had to then be reprocessed or scrapped and removed from site.
On one particularly high volume conveyor, around 2 tonnes of material per day was being lost and sub-contract labour had to be brought in to help deal with the problem, costing approximately £10,000 per year.
Client belt before (left) and after (right) installation of Starclean
We were initially contacted to solve the carryback problem on the batch conveyor losing around 2 tonnes of material per day. Our team specified, supplied and fitted a Starclean Pre-Cleaner with an 800 series tensioning device and polyurethane blades.
Performance has been excellent and the client is now happy that the belt is clean, carryback levels are negligible and sub-contract labour is no longer required for clean-up. Following this success the client felt that Starclean offered best practice for their plants.
Starclean Pre-Cleaner in action
Ten more Pre-Cleaners have since been installed throughout the region. The client has also purchased several Starclean Primary and Secondary Cleaners, but critically the 800 series tensioning device has been used in all cases.
As the tensioning device is the key interface between operator and conveyor, standardising on this component has vastly simplified both operator training and cleaner maintenance for the business.
800 series tensioning device
Find out more information on Starclean conveyor belt cleaners.
In brief
• Leading national producer of readymix concrete
• Conveyor belts in region suffering from cleaning issues
• Material carryback costing time and money
• 10+ Starclean Pre-Cleaners installed across region
How we made it better
Productivity – Less product waste, increased plant efficiency
Safety – Reduction in manual clean-up, removing waste from beneath the conveyor.
Quality – More effective cleaning helps maintain batch accuracy
OF WASTE ELIMINATED PER WEEK
ESTIMATED PAYBACK
FITTED TO REPLACE AIR KNIVES & BRUSHES
REDUCTION IN CLEAN-UP TIME
MISTRACKING DISAPPEARED