Witte designs vibrating fluid bed drying systems that dry ceramics like bentonite clay and similar products, and recover fines for reuse. This Witte vibrating fluid bed dryer designed for continuous clay drying features an integral baghouse for dust and fines collection and reuse and is mounted on rails for easy access to the entire dryer interior.
Case Study:
DRYER RECOVERS HIGH-VALUE CLAY PRODUCT
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Southern Clay Products, Inc. in Gonzales, Texas, has increased the capacity of its drying process, strengthened the quality and consistency of its bentonite clay products, and reduced costs by recovering material that would otherwise be lost as waste. The improvements for the global supplier of synthetic and clay-based rheology modifiers are due to the addition of a vibrating fluid bed dryer by the Witte Co. that integrates drying and dust collection into a single unit. Since 1938, the family-owned and operated Witte has been designing and manufacturing vibrating fluid bed dryers, coolers, de-waterers, screeners and other process equipment for companies such as Kraft, Nestle, Morton, Merck, DuPont, and ChevronTexaco.
Southern Clay purchased the integrated dryer-dust collector to boost production as part of a plant expansion completed to meet rising customer demand, according to Clyde Bates, the company’s engineering manager. Bates is responsible for managing plant maintenance and construction in seven processing plants, as well as a variety of storage and warehousing facilities on a sprawling 88-acre site. A division of Rockwood Specialties, Inc., Southern Clay Products develops and manufactures a range of specialty rheology modifiers and additives used to modify viscosity, thickness, and flow characteristics.