"The chute, a large funnel, was used in a gravel loading station in this case. When gravel rattles through a funnel into a truck, it naturally causes abrasion on the way, as it attacks the structure of the funnel. The metal with which the funnel was lined did not withstand this load very long. One of our sales representatives came up with the idea to try our LineTech, which is our plastic wear protection."
Claudio Lobina, sales director for raw material screens at HEIN, LEHMANN, did not know whether the idea would work at first. Would the plastic be able to perform as well as the very hard material used thus far? Ultimately, though, the willingness to experiment on the part of the HEIN, LEHMANN employees paid off.
"For the test, we merely replaced the previous Hardox plates one-to-one with our plastic lining. The plastic plates were a bit thicker, but that did not matter in this case."
The advantages were immediately apparent. In addition to a significantly longer service life, there was another positive side effect:
"Using plastic plates substantially reduced the noise. Loading gravel is naturally very loud – just think of throwing a handful of stones on a table top. But if you put a tablecloth on the table, the noise level will be much lower. The same thing happened with the plastic lining in the chute: it absorbed most of the noise caused by the passing gravel."
Longer service life, less noise – that in itself would be enough. But there was even more:
"Chute linings are often cast and cannot be replaced. The metal plates were screwed in, but they were incredibly heavy. The plastic plates, also screwed or fixed with industrial magnets, eliminated this disadvantage as well. Plastic just is that much lighter. Before, the machine had to be shut down for a long time when a new lining was installed. Now, exchanging the lining was a matter of less than an hour."
Generating, testing and developing ideas – that is one of the working principles at HEIN, LEHMANN. When you are open to new ways of doing things, experience will follow. Our sales director Claudio Lobina shares this view.
Do you want to improve your production processes? Contact us – we will gladly advise you!
