Pneumatic conveying at a flour mill — side channel blowers
The customer
A 24-tonne/hour flour mill in central Thailand. Sifted flour is conveyed pneumatically through 80 m of stainless tubing from the sifting deck to a packaging silo.
The challenge
The two existing positive-displacement blowers were:
- Loud — 92 dB(A) at the source, requiring full PPE in the blower room
- Heavy — bolted to a 4-tonne concrete pad
- Oil-lubricated — risk of oil migration into the food product
- Approaching end-of-life — needing rebuilds every 18 months
The solution
Three SC Series side channel blowers in parallel:
- Oil-free by design — no lubricant in the air path
- 65 dB(A) in the blower room — talking volume
- Self-supporting — bolt directly to the existing structural floor, no concrete pad
- Variable frequency drive on each unit for automatic load matching
The result
- Noise reduced from 92 to 65 dB(A) — PPE no longer mandatory in the blower room
- Conveying velocity stable at 22 m/s across all flow rates
- Zero oil-contamination risk for the food product
- No foundation work during installation — saved 3 weeks of project time