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Handling spices can be a complex process offering a variety of challenges. Among the primary concerns when handling these ingredients are dusting to atmosphere and viscosity of the materials being handled. These businesses can mitigate potentially detrimental effects by purchasing dust-tight valves for their facilities. Many dust-tight valves designed today feature hard polymers as a sealing surface, because they offer a superior seal and better wear characteristics for most applications. A spice company handling paprika, selected a 100mm (4”) Vortex Wye Line Diverter to eliminate material cross contamination accompanied by several 500mm (20”) Vortex Roller Gates to shut off and seal material at the bottom of dry blenders and mixers. Features include magnetic reed switches and stainless-steel material contact surfaces and rollers. The Wye Line Diverter is bespoken to eliminate cross contamination with the line being purged between batches. These valves

The flow of Sorbitol, a sweetener used in foods, oral care products and pharmaceuticals, is sometimes hard to stop. A Vortex Roller Gate is fit for this task. A client who manufactures chocolate, candy and chewing gum in the United Kingdom had a special application for a roller gate. In this application, the dual cylinder Vortex Roller Gate would be used to stop the material flow of sorbitol in the client’s process. Sorbitol is a sweetener used in foods, oral care products and pharmaceuticals. This Vortex Roller Gate was designed with double-acting air cylinder actuators and was constructed with a 150mm (6”) special service inlet to match the customer’s pattern. The valve body is 6061-T6 aluminum with a 304 stainless steel blade and seal retainers. Material contact is 304 stainless steel and polymer. The valve blade is electropolished to address the stickiness of the product being handled. The air cylinders are equipped with magno-pistons for use with magnetic reed position indication switches. Milled access slots in the side frame allows removal and replacement of bonnet seals while the gate remains in service.

A bourbon distillery needed a method to control the flow of grains into the cookers. The Vortex Handslide Gates were instrumental in introducing milled corn, malt, and rye to the start of the distilling process in this plant. The Handslide Gates are manually operated process gates used to control flow on the inlet/outlet of hoppers, bins or totes in applications where powered gates are not feasible or desired. The manual double-handles are accessible on both ends for an effective push-pull operation. The frame, flanges and safety cover on these 101 mm (4”) gates are made from aluminium, while the blade and all material contact areas are made from 304 stainless steel and polymer.

For UK Animal Bedding Production Facility Arden Wood Shavings located in Solihull, England, is one of the leading suppliers of wood shavings and sawdust bedding to the poultry, equestrian, dairy and animal bedding sectors. Application: The Client’s particular process was using the valves to isolate conveyors in their fully automated production facility. Challenges: The Client had experienced problems with the existing valve located on the outlet of their inclined conveyor. The existing valve leaked material and was difficult to maintain. The new Roller Gate valve had to be specifically designed to match the opening, bolt hole pattern and overall height of the existing valve to minimize plant downtime during installation. It included an oversized pneumatic cylinder to assist in closing through material flow. As the valve was installed at an angle and would see more material flow on one side, the blade guide rollers were upgraded to be a more durable stainless-steel construction. Vortex was able to achieve

The Acre Road facility at the University of Glasgow houses a variety of wind tunnel and flow generation devices, including two low-speed wind tunnels, vacuum chambers, and a range of high-speed facilities. The industrial scale set up contains specialised equipment for aerospace and aerodynamics research. The University of Glasgow was one of seven UK universities sharing £13.3 million from the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC) and the UK Aerodynamics Centre to form the National Wind Tunnel Facility (NWTF). The funding was used to upgrade the James Watt School of Engineering’s four existing wind tunnels, introducing a gust facility and “state-of-the-art” diagnostic equipment. The upgraded tunnels will help with the development of key technologies in the wind energy sector and with research in areas of aerospace such as rotorcraft. The refurbished centre is a key facility in the UK where researchers can investigate and develop vehicles and other

A flour miller in the United Kingdom had experienced problems with its existing valves located on the outlet of their bulk storage silos. The valves, used to isolate the silos from an ongoing conveyor, leaked material and failed to fully open and close. They required constant maintenance and replacement parts with subsequent lost production. The new valves had to be specifically designed to match the opening, bolt hole pattern, and overall height of the existing valves to minimize plant downtime during installation. Vortex was able to achieve all of the required parameters. The Vortex Roller Gate was identified as the ideal solution for this application. The Roller Gate is designed for handling powders, pellets and granules in gravity flow and low-pressure applications. Features: The Vortex Roller Gate has a number of key features and benefits including: •Positive seal of dust and fine powders. •No exposed moving parts. •Wear-compensating hard polymer seals. •Seals

A Bauxite refinery contacted Vortex to source a gate to feed alumina trihydrate into a furnace. They needed a gate that could withstand the high temperatures from the furnace. Vortex engineered a Titan Slide Gate that features: •A surface finished with high temperature-resistant paint. •Seals constructed from bronze and graphite fiberglass to handle temperature spikes up 315⁰ C (600⁰ F). •A beveled blade constructed from 400 Brinell Hardness Number (BHN) abrasion-resistant steel. •A three-phase electric linear actuator that delivers the force required to close through a standing column of material, if necessary. In the case of an electrical loss, the actuator is also equipped with a manual hand wheel override. Alumina trihydrate is a white, odorless, powdery substance. It is primarily used in aluminum metal production, but is also used in epoxy, urethane and polyester resins as a smoke suppressant and flame retardant filler. Approximately 100 million

A global pharmaceutical company was looking for a gate to shut off and control the flow of different ingredients into a dry blender. But the gate needed to adhere to the company’s specifications. • The slide gate must provide a positive seal of materials across the gate and to atmosphere. • All metal and polymer materials of construction must be health compliant. • The slide gate must be able to limit initial material flow as the gate is opened, so that downstream equipment is not “flooded.” • The gate’s inlets and outlets must match with existing equipment. The solution was to install a Vortex Clear Action Gate with a Variable Position Open (VPO) assembly. In addition to a superior material seal across the gate and to atmosphere, the Clear Action Gate “self cleans” its seals on the closing stroke. Traditional slide gates jam and pack material into an end seal upon closure. Alternatively, the Clear Action Gate does not seat into an end

Several years ago, Adams Industrievertretungen – a representative agent for Vortex Global – was approached by a systems group to discuss a new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) opportunity. This particular systems group specializes in the design and construction of roasters and other coffee processing systems. Typically, this systems group would construct their own simple gate valves for use in their coffee roasting systems. But after attending an exhibition where Vortex products were on display, they became interested in Vortex design. In particular, they were impressed with the Orifice Gate. With that, the systems group contacted Adams Industrievertretungen to request a trial order of Vortex Orifice Gates, to be integrated within their coffee roasting systems. Quantity: 2 Vortex Orifice Gates • Size: 200 mm • Designed for indoor service • Gate body constructed from painted carbon steel • Gate blade & material contact areas constructed from

Vortex HDPV2 replaces existing butterfly valve BASF is an integrated global chemical company. Their site in Redditch, UK, specializes in the production of flooring systems including concrete repair, structural waterproofing, traffic repair, car park decks, roofing waterproofing and structural grouts. The manufacturing process includes bulk storage, batch weighing and pneumatic transfer of a large variety of ingredients (typically sands cements, lime and coarse aggregates) to a large vacuum receiving hopper. From here materials are discharged to a mixer then discharged to a high speed packing process. BASF had experienced problems with the existing butterfly valve on the outlet of their vacuum batch receiving hopper. Some of the coarse materials, typically quartz and flintag, are very abrasive with sharp jagged edges and have a high bulk density. The butterfly valve blade was unable to open against a head load of high density compacted material. BASF identified the Vortex HDPV2 slide gate valve as ideal solution

Wye Line Diverter handles delicate tea leaves Tea and coffee merchants, Taylors of Harrogate, recruited Vortex a few years ago to assist in improving a tea transfer system at their North Yorkshire, UK plant. Staff at the Vortex Darlington office were contacted by Taylors, who had identified the Wye Line Diverter from the Vortex website as a potential alternative for their tea transfer system. Taylors were then visited by Vortex representatives just 90 minutes after this initial enquiry. At the plant, the blended tea was transferred to each packaging machine by a dedicated vacuum system. The project was to combine these two systems into one, reducing the number of vacuum pumps and pipework whilst not affecting the quality, taste or structure of the tea in any way. Following the decision that the 2-Way Wye Line Diverters offered the best solution to reduce costs and energy consumption, Taylors were able to test a set of four diverters on a trial basis for several weeks. At the end of this period, Taylors

Ideal for handling dry bulk material in gravity flow or pneumatic conveying applications Vortex Quantum Series slide gates and diverters are the valves our customers have been using for decades to shut off, meter, and divert their dry bulk material. It’s our traditional line of valves for dry bulk processing and conveying through gravity flow or pneumatic (pressure or vacuum) conveying. Some of the industries that use Quantum valves include but not limited to: Agriculture, Chemical, Coffee, Dairy, Foods, Milling, Pet Food, Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical, Plastics, Rubber, Textiles, Tobacco, and Wood – to name a few.