US-based Vortex Global has built up a range of grain-handling equipment. ABHR spoke with the company’s general manager of sales and engineering to find out how its products help Australia’s agriculture.
Few regions in the us can compete with Kansas in terms of grain production. The midwestern state is one of the country’s main producers of wheat and sorghum, with massive amounts of farmland.
It was there, more than 40 years ago, that Vortex Global opened for business. Founded in 1977, the company specialises in the design and manufacture of components to transport and control the flow of dry bulk solids, grain chief among them.
Laurence Millington, Vortex Global’s general manager of sales and engineering, said the company is highly regarded across the state and the world, thanks to the durability of its equipment.
“Grain is highly abrasive, which is why we design critical pieces of infrastructure – such as gate valves and diverters – to have as much abrasion resistance as possible,” he told ABHR.
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“For example, the Titan Slide Gate was created to improve upon the design of our standard roller gate.”
These gates were designed to tackle some of the most demanding applications when handling heavy-duty abrasive materials such as sand, gravel, coal, metal powders or minerals. They are used in gravity flow applications where positive material shut-off and dust-tight sealing are required.
The Titan Slide Gate features a live loaded, hard polymer bonnet seals that compensate for wear and provide material seal across the gate.
These seals have a compressed rubber backing to ensure that even as the polymer experiences frictional wear from many actuations over time, the rubber load seals continuously force the polymer seals against the sliding blade. They can also be swapped while the valve is in service, reducing downtime.
When it comes to the grain industry, Millington said, ease of maintenance is a critical concern for customers.
“Time spent maintaining equipment is lost process time, which can be expensive,” he said.
“Diverters are often high up on towers. I was a maintenance guy for 15 years and the less time I spent at those heights doing maintenance, the better.
Inline maintenance drastically shortens the amount of time needed and gets the equipment back up and running much faster.”
Grain dust also poses significant safety risks, as it can be highly explosive. Everything Vortex Global manufactures is ATEX-rated, including ancillary systems and valves, to ensure the equipment is operating as safely as possible.
Millington said Vortex’s custom design capacities are what make the company’s offering stand out. While it offers a standard range of valves and diverters, Vortex can provide customised changes to fit specific applications or materials.
The changes can be highly in-depth and could include different actuation methods or geometries.
“There is a development system in place at the company – we design new equipment and learn from what we have done in the past,” Millington said.
“If a customer approaches us with a problem, we can look at the application and design something totally new to solve it.”
Pneuvay Engineering represents Vortex Global in Australia and works closely alongside the manufacturer. Through the distributor, Vortex can provide around-the-clock after-sales support as needed.
“We’re going from strength to strength in the grain-handling market, and are going to keep developing and pushing forwards,” Millington said.