Productivity increases at Purfleet

Fairport Engineering install new raw material feed facility at Hanson ggbs plant on the Thames

SITUATED next to the river Thames, Hanson’s Purfleet Works manufactures ground granulated blast-furnace slag (ggbs) for supply to the south-east of England, the South Coast and East Anglia.

Facilities at the plant, which can produce 1 million tonnes of ggbs per year, include two closed-circuit ball mills and a vertical roller mill that require a consistent raw material feed.

As part of an ongoing investment programme at Purfleet, Hanson commissioned Fairport Engineering to undertake the first phase of a small but vital project to improve the raw material intake facilities.

With the ultimate intention of replacing the site’s existing storage bunker (shown in the background of the photograph), the new feed hopper and ramp (visible in the foreground) is the first part of the project. In the next phase, the old bunker is expected to be removed and replaced with a second feed hopper and ramp.

The new system includes a reinforced concrete access ramp that will allow front-end loaders to deposit raw material into a 30-tonne (nominal) capacity Hardox-lined hopper before being metered at up to 200 tonnes/h, by a vibrating feeder, on to an existing conveyor belt feeding the ggbs plant.

The entire installation was completed in around six weeks from starting on site to commissioning, without any undue interference to operation of the existing facilities.