CUSTOM DENSE PHASE SYSTEM FOR BERGKAMP, INC

“So goodbye yellow brick road where the dogs of society howl; You can't plant me in your penthouse I'm going back to my plough”

- Elton John & Bernie Taupin 

While extolling the virtues of the many wondrous pieces of pneumatic conveying equipment is always a fun & exciting (you could tell me I need a life, but I have 5 kids, so I already knew that), what REALLY is fun to do, is talk about customer applications when we get the go ahead. Really. I get more excited than Navin R. Johnson with a new phone book.

Recently, Smoot Company was given the opportunity to come up with a solution to help Bergkamp Inc. with a unique challenge. Bergkamp provides pavement preservation solutions including machines to do micro-surfacing. Related to slurry sealing, micro-surfacing takes a mixture of dense graded aggregate, asphalt emulsion modified with polymers, water and mineral fillers and applies the mixture onto existing road surfaces to preserve the road for the long term.

The common way that the “mineral filler” is added is by hand dumping bags of cement into a holding tank. Dumping these bags of cement was cumbersome and time consuming to the drivers (Sort of like trying to watch an episode of Downton Abbey). As a result, Bergkamp approached Smoot Co about providing an alternative, economical way to charge these tanks.

The answer was a small dense phase pressure vessel that now recharges the tank. To keep costs to a minimum, the vessel is powered by the trucks themselves. Compressed air from the truck’s air brake line is connected to the vessel via a ball valve and used to provide air to blow the material up to the holding tank. A hinged and clamped lid is opened and material is dumped in at grade. This is both faster and safer for the drivers to operate, speeding up the process while reducing potential workplace injury. This process has worked so well that another system is being investigated for continuous over the road pavers which have even more safety enhancement potential.

While the “Road to Hell” may be paved with good intentions, through the efforts of Smoot Co. and Bergkamp Inc., the roads in our communities may be paved with advanced polymer additives that make our daily commutes safer and more cost effective, so you can “Ease on down, ease on down the road.” – Michael Jackson

For more information about Dense Phase Pneumatic Systems Click Here.