In an industry that has its roots in ancient Roman times, turning mountains into dust with rugged equipment that pounds, crushes, and grinds, a vacuum cleaner seems almost out of place.  However, with recent supply shortages and tighter EPA and OSHA regulations, Portland cement manufacturers are finding that the right vacuum cleaner can be the ideal solution to reclaim product and comply with health and safety regulations.  As a result, industrial vacuum cleaners are being used in nearly every step of the manufacturing process – in the cement plant, the lab, loading and unloading terminals, as well as in bagging operations.  

Each step in manufacturing and distribution has its own problems and thus requires its own unique solution.  In the lab environment a little dust is a big problem and may require a dedusting system for quality control measures, but a cement plant that spans many floors and produces 1,000 lb of dust per day may require a central vacuum system with a piping network to each floor.  For bagging operations where dust is difficult to control, a continuous duty vacuum system is ideal; and in areas where spillage is minimal, like loading/unloading stations, a single portable air-operated vac may be sufficient for periodic cleanup.

Industrial vacuum cleaners are more sophisticated than their cousin, the shop-type vac, which has been labeled “asthmatic” when faced with the savage conditions in the cement industry.

“We tried shop vacuums, but they just wouldn’t last,” says Andy Rodgers, terminal manager at Buzzi Unicem USA’s Pensacola, FL terminal. “The dust just eats everything up, and the motors don’t last.” Then he found a solution with Belleville, NJ-based Vac-U-Max.

Cleanup for Railcar Unloading

The Pensacola terminal unloads Portland cement from bottom dump railcars into silos via a boot connector with foam seals. The boot seal connects hopper car unloading gates to a pit where a screw conveyor transfers cement to bucket elevators that dump into the silos.

“Sometimes these foam seals blow out, they start leaking, or maybe one of the boots will drop and then cement will hit the ground instead of the pit,”  says Rodgers.  “The shop vacuums weren’t powerful enough to clean up 500-600 lb of cement so we used a lot of shovels and wheelbarrows.”

John White, vp logistics at Buzzi Unicem USA, suggested he look at Vac-U-Max, which introduced the first air-operated vacuum cleaner in 1954.  What impressed Rodgers most about the industrial vacuum was that it is powered by air and not electricity. 

“All these terminals have air compressors,” he said. “Air operates our valves, it operates our boot connectors; that is how we move the material -- by air.”  

The air-powered vacs operate on the Venturi principle and by design create their own vacuum without motors or moving parts, making them intrinsically safe and ideal for use with abrasive cement particles that can damage electrical equipment over time.

Rodgers is one of 31 Buzzi Unicem USA terminal managers who have a competitive tradition of tracking who has the cleanest terminal.  After he presented his solution at last year’s annual meeting, the competition escalated.  “That next week I had 30 emails asking me where I got this thing.”

Dissatisfied with using brooms, shovels and air hoses that just blow debris around, Mike Glaze, terminal manager at Buzzi Unicem USA’s Indianapolis, IN terminal that unloads flyash and slag, was the next to get Vac-U-Max’s MDL 55. 

“We use it for several different things here,” he says. Like the unit in Pensacola, Glaze’s unit is mounted on a dolly with wheels that allows it to be moved around easily. “We clean our bucket elevator, our screw conveyors and use it to clean around our boot seals,” he says. “It’s really handy and easy to use.”

The unit has a unique pulse jet filter cleaning system which, with the push of a button, backwashes the filter, eliminating the need to manually clean the unit and virtually eliminating clogging. 

“Like anything else, if you take care of it, it will last a long time,” says Glaze.  “You just push a button on top of the vacuum mechanism to keep the filters clean.”

Glaze also appreciates that using ear protection is not necessary with the unit. “There is just no noise to it at all.”  The units are equipped with noise mufflers and guards for sound levels below 80 dbA.  Pensacola’s Rodgers agrees, “You don’t even know this thing is running unless you put your hand on the end of the hose.”

Beyond the friendly competition of keeping their terminals clean, reclaiming hundreds of pounds of material each day is important to the terminal managers.

“That was one reason we wanted this, because the barrel was so easy to maneuver around,” says Rodgers.  “We just vacuum it up, roll it over to the pit, and put it right back into the system. We don’t lose anything.”

Cleanup for Bulk Transport Loading

Buzzi Unicem USA is sensitive to environmental issues and is proactive in adhering to OSHA and MSHA regulations as well as local EPA guidelines.  The Stockertown, PA plant  utilizes two Vac-U-Max Monobloc centralized vacuum systems to remove product buildup around the hatches of bulk tankers and railcars that are loaded from above, ensuring that no dust is spread when the trucks are leaving the facility or traveling through neighborhoods. 

These stationary Monoblocs include strategically placed piping throughout the facility, allowing hoses to be connected to clean multiple areas simultaneously. 

Centralized vacuums are also used in clinker plants early in the cement manufacturing process and capture half a ton of dust per day during the grinding process. In large grinding operations with multiple floors, the vacuum is centrally located on the ground level with piping routed to each floor for easy cleanup.

Quality Control in Automated Labs

Centralized vacuums are also used in more sophisticated environments where continuous duty is essential for quality control purposes. In automated labs where constant operation of multiple stations and materials produces fine, smoke-like dust, vacuum systems can easily become overwhelmed, skewing test results. In order to maintain accurate results, automated labs require central continuous duty vacuum systems that are precisely engineered. 

Considerations such as floor space, pickup points, collection capacity, the need for manual vacs, and other parameters must be weighed. When Lehigh Cement Company’s European-made central vacuum system wasn’t performing as well as expected, the company turned to Vac-U-Max.  The company sent an engineer, along with a demo truck equipped with a 20 hp vacuum, to perform an audit and make recommendations that delivered desired results.

Bag Filling Reclamation

Continuous duty vacuums, although less sophisticated than the central vacuum systems used in the lab, are also used to capture and reclaim cement in the bagging process. 

In cement bagging operations it is difficult to avoid dust spillage.  Texas-based Featherlite uses a Vac-U-Max continuous duty vacuum to avoid product loss with their bag-filling machines.  The unit captures the spillage and puts it back into the packaging machine to maximize profit. In rugged industrial applications where environmental safety, ergonomics, and productivity matter, vacuum cleaners designed specifically to withstand harsh 24/7 operation can deliver consistent performance that adds to a company’s bottom line.

Vac-U-Max heavy-duty industrial vacuum cleaning systems help keep both capital equipment and employees safer and cleaner.