Putty Manufacturing Process Workflow With Lean Phase Pneumatic Conveying System
With the widespread use of wall putty many paint manufacturers have entered the production of wall putty. It is now a mature market with a market capitalization of over Rs 3,000 crores.
As you might very well know, wall putty is used as a protective base on interior and exterior walls for expensive paints. It is also used for levelling of wall surfaces to fill cracks and surface imperfections. The momentous growth in infrastructure development projects along with residential and commercial projects in both developed and developing regions is a leading factor which that will boost the demand for wall putty in near future.
If you are planning to make a fortune out of this booming Putty Manufacturing Industry, read the guide below to understand the basics of the Putty Manufacturing Process.
The main ingredients of Putty are white cement & dolomite in ideal proportion. Normally, the recipe proportion is 1:4 of white cement to dolomite. For example, 5 Tonnes of Putty will have 1 ton of white cement (BD – 1100 Kg/m3) & 4 tonnes of dolomite (BD – 950 Kg/m3) along with other minor ingredients.
The basic manufacturing workflow is divided into 4 parts
- Raw material unloading & storage
- Weighing/batching of the ingredients
- Conveying raw material to charge hoppers
- Blending & mixing
Generally raw material comes in sizes ranging from small bags of 25 kg & 50 kg to big bags weighing 1000 kg. Unloading of these bags and feeding of raw material to conveying system shall be achieved by bag slitting machines for small bags and with electric hoist & bag massager system in case of big bags.
Depending upon the finished product, the quantity of raw material can be decided. First, the bulk quantity of raw material (white cement & dolomite) is transferred to storage silos. For transferring the material to silos, pneumatic conveying system is preferred as it is economical and robust, both in operation as well as maintenance. The capacity of these silos depends on how much raw material we want to carry as the stock. Usually, it may be in between 3 to 6 days. To avoid the jamming of raw material inside the silo, cones need to be fluidized. Moreover, for extra precaution, bin activators are also used.
The ingredients should be added in exact proportions (determined by formula) to ensure producing premium quality Putty powder. So, a hopper with weighing cells must be located below the storage silos. Metering of the raw material from silo to weigh hopper should be performed by screw conveyors. After getting the right quantity of material in the weighing hopper, it will be dosed to charge hopper by conveying line via rotary airlock valves.
The raw material must now be conveyed to charge hoppers as per requirement. Selection of charge hoppers is done with the help of diverters in the conveying line. Conveying capacity is decided by the blender batch cycle time. Based on capacity requirement & distance, conveying air is calculated & a blower is selected. Average conveying air velocity ranges between 25 – 30 m/s.
After the material is charged in a charge hopper, it gets dosed in a blender/ mixer with the help of a screw conveyor. The average blender mixing time is between 15- 30 minutes. The material is then transferred to the packing machine where it is duly packed. The final product is then moved to finished good storage area.
All the system operations can be controlled through a PLC panel.
Using PLC programming, the system measures the accuracy of various raw materials mixed in the ingredients, thus delivering a superior quality Putty powder. Consequently, it also reduces labour intensity in addition to environmental pollution. Hence, making it a win-win for all.
We hope that this article helped you get an idea about the Putty manufacturing process and realize how the lean phase pneumatic conveying system makes the whole Putty manufacturing process hassle-free and automated.