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Food For Thought - Menú del diá

2010-04-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

Now that Sterling is almost worthless – certainly against the Euro, I find that visiting Mallorca (Majorca as you may wish to pronounce and spell it) is no longer a value for money experience. However one way to enjoy a good four course meal at low prices is to look for the Menú del diá (or menu du jour in France).

If the restaurant or bar is open from midday and serving food then they must offer this ‘menú del diá’ at lunchtime (la comida). It originated in Spain by Franco’s dictate that all workers must be offered a good, cheap midday meal. It usually consists of a four course meal, bottle of water and bottle of house wine for between €7.00 - €9.00.

A good example of this excellent ‘value for money eating’ is located close by my apartment at Carabela, Pto Alcudia, Mallorca – The Bistro Mar, set in between the shore and harbour. It is a really comfortable and relaxing place to eat.

A typical menu would be a choice of two hot and two cold starters, again a choice of four hot main courses, several deserts to choose from all with bread, olives, water and wine. You get plenty to eat and the food quality is excellent.

Value for money along with being fully satisfied with what you have purchased ... and the service not only applies to ‘menu del diá’ but to our worldwide range of acoustic cleaner customers - disfrute de su comida,

Titanic's Boilers

2010-02-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

As you know from previous blogs, coming from Northern Ireland and working for a time close to the dock where RMS Titanic was built. I am fascinated by many aspects of this ship’s history. One of these relates to the Titanic’s boilers.

This great ship had 25 double ended, triple furnace boilers and 4 single ended boilers – giving a grand total of 162 fireboxes/furnaces. These massive boilers were 20 feet/6m in length and almost 16 feet/5m in diameter. They all burnt coal with the smoke and waste gases being expelled through three funnels (the fourth funnel was only a dummy!). Each of these furnaces had to be manually stoked by a total of 150 stokers. Backing them up were a team of ‘trimmers’ whose job was to bring the coal to the boilers for the firemen to use. A key part of the trimmers job was to ‘extract’ the coal evenly from both the port and starboard sides of the ship so as the ship remained ‘trim’ in the water and did not list. It was understandable therefore that this army of stokers and trimmers were known as the ‘Black Gang’!

These great boilers consumed around 600 tonnes of coal per day and of course when coal is burnt, ash is left behind. This had to be manually brushed from the tubes and shovelled out from the boiler – 100 tonnes of ash per day! Because the boilers were below sea level this ash had to be brought to the water level by high pressure water devices called Ash Ejectors which pumped the ash slurry into the sea.

I suppose thanks to innovative companies such as our Primasonics International, such old fashioned and ineffective devices, including steam soot blowers have been replaced by innovative Acoustic Cleaners which use sound waves to prevent the build up of ash within all key areas of the boiler – and without causing any damage whatsoever to the boiler tubes of structure. The result? Continuously cleaner boilers, lower maintenance costs and increased thermal efficiency. Take a ‘promenade’ through our acoustic cleaning web site especially the page on power plant cleaning applications.

‘Sounds’ Like The Perfect Spray Dryer

2010-01-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

OK because I am Irish I am an ardent tea drinker, not that I do not like coffee. Did you know that spray dried coffee was invented in 1901, in Chicago by a Japanese scientist called Satori Kato? Since then spray drying of a wide range of ingredients has now become possible with advances in spray dryer design and operation. Today spray dryers in various design formats are used to dry such materials as milk powder, spices, flavourings, pigments, ceramic materials, enzymes and catalyst supports.

Spray drying involves evaporation of the moisture from the atomised liquid or slurry by spraying this material into a drying medium, usually hot air. There are three basic techniques employed for such rapid drying.

Co-Current – in which the material is sprayed in the same direction as the flow of hot air through the vertical vessel.

Counter-Current – in which the material is sprayed in the opposite direction as the hot air flow. The hot air flows upwards and the product falls through increasingly hot air to the base of the vessel.

Combined Current – in which the advantages of both types of drying are combined. The product is sprayed upwards and only remains in the hot zone for a short time to remove the residual moisture. Gravity then allows the product to fall into the cooler zone.

In all cases the exiting dry materials (which in some cases can have an extremely small particle size) exit the cone base of the dryer and are then passed into either a cyclone or bag filter to separate the material from the air stream.

However these spray drying systems are not without their problems which mainly centre around:-

Material building up on the vertical side walls of the dryer, then falling off in lumps, so blocking the outlet

Material building up and blocking over the base outlet

Fine particles blocking the filter bags and also the filter discharge hopper. These serious problems which used to cause major and costly down time can easily and economically be eliminated with the installation of suitable models of Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners.

Should you wish to enquire about a particular spray dryer application just click on the following link and complete our Spray Dryer Questionnaire

Photo left:

Acoustic cleaner installed to prevent spray dryer material build-up.

Jazz It Up

2009-12-23T01:27:00.000-08:00

You will know from my previous acoustic cleaning blog posts that I am a big band fan and take every opportunity to get to live performances. I have two more lined up for 2010 – Chris Dean’s Syd Lawrence Orchestra at Barrow in January and an excellent singer from the North West – Jason Isaacs with the Greg Francis Orchestra in Newcastle in March.

However, I have recently taken a liking for modern jazz after listening to the Back to Basi Orchestra and the very talented saxophonist Karen Sharpe. The last time I heard Karen play was at the excellent Rawtenstall Jazz Club in Rossendale, Lancs. I recently re-visited this vibrant club to listen to the fabulous Northern Jazz Orchestra. This 17 piece band literally ‘blew’ me away with their red-hot horn music. Their leader and drummer, Paul Rigby, leads this talented band superbly well and is a great drummer in his own right. I was talking with his father Alan who told me that Paul’s greatest disappointment was that he never met his idle Buddy Rich, although Buddy’s magic certainly lives on within the NJO.

It somewhat reminds me of our company’s ‘red-hot horns’ our innovative range of Acoustic Cleaners which provide superb ‘performances’ in over 45 countries worldwide - and in a wide range of plant applications.

Acoustics In Art

2009-11-26T01:15:00.000-08:00

There are many ways in which acoustics are used in everyday life - from acoustic cleaners that help many industries maintain material flow through to the world of music and beyond. I am always keen to read news stories relating to acoustics so I thought I would share with you two that I encountered recently.

The first is an interesting product called Acoustic Art Panels. The makers claim they have a unique facing which makes them suited to a 'limitless range of applications'. They cite private homes, conference rooms, boats, bars and restaurants as examples. I have not seen any of these panels in person nor do I know anyone (yet) who has purchased and used them so I am sitting on the fence as to whether these panels carry any real 'acoustic' value but they certainly sound interesting.

The second is a documentary film entitled 'Visual Acoustics' which celebrates the life of Julius Shulam who died this summer aged 98. Shulam is viewed by many as the world's greatest ever architectural photographer who was able to capture virtually every modern architect's work since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry. I have yet to see the film but the review I chanced upon along with a youtube video of the trailer has whet my appetite and I will be on the lookout for the first opportunity to see it.

It never ceases to amaze me how much we like to use the word acoustic - it must count for something special!

Life Is A Circus!

2009-10-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned in the dim and distant past, I was born in a small County Down, Northern Ireland town called Dromore. Indeed I have mentioned in a previous blog about my grandfather Joseph Magill who originally was a boot maker. In this link (a snapshot from 1910) you can see his name mentioned within a summary of Dromore.

During my childhood days and early teens, there were few cars, little television and certainly meagre amounts of pocket money which was usually completely spent within the hour in the many little sweet shops which existed at that time. However there were times when I did save my pocket money for a few annual special occasions:-

Christmas – Summer Holidays – Halloween – and … the Touring Circus

A couple of weeks ahead of the arrival of the circus, posters would be pasted up in glorious bright red, yellow and blue announcing the arrival date for a touring circus – what excitement that caused!

There was one particular field on the outskirts of my small town called the pinnacle meadow, where the circus pitched camp. There were two Irish circuses which visited Dromore and both are still going strong today. They were Duffy’s Circus and Fossett’s Circus, one of which, even today, features a fantastic tiger act! As kids we would sit and watch the canvas big top being erected, the various animals being housed and all the circus paraphernalia being unloaded. If we were lucky (or cheeky) enough, a few of us would be offered a free admission ticket in return for helping do the more mundane jobs necessary within routine circus life.

Eventually it was ‘Showtime’ and we eagerly entered through the multi-illuminated entrance and took our seats on the hard wooded, tiered seating at the back of the tent. For those two hours we sat spellbound watching all the acts. When not performing, many of the acts climbed up on top of a lorry into the ‘orchestra pit’ to play various musical instruments.

OK so I have not talked about our innovative Acoustic Cleaners today – instead I just indulged myself in a little bit of reminiscing!

Technical Director's Post

2009-09-24T01:40:00.000-07:00

I recently visited Liverpool University's Acoustic Research Unit to test a new product in their large facilities. Visiting universities is something I do on a reasonably regular basis as Primasonics has good relations both with Liverpool and Salford University acoustic departments. Whilst there I was working with Gary Seiffert, a very knowledgeable and, incidentally, funny chap who mentioned some other projects he had heard about in the University. One of these really captured my imagination - within the engineering department staff and students are working with Ford to replace spark plugs in engines with lasers.

Now if you are reading this acoustic cleaning blog you are probably an engineer of some sort and would agree that in our world it is a truth universally acknowledged that lasers are fascinating. Not only do the lasers have less electrical demand than conventional spark plugs but they can be split and focused into numerous beams which produce multiple ignition points within the cylinder. These multiple ignition points make the engines more efficient, especially when starting from cold which means the same power for less fuel helping to reduce a vehicles carbon footprint. What made this fascinating to me was they have working engines right now in the lab - this is no pipe dream. It also made me wonder if this technology could change the shape of engines; valves don't have to stay out of the way of a spark plug any more. Indeed this may be the small trigger that ignites, if you will pardon the pun, the viability of some of the more radical engines we have seen such as the “Round Engine”.

We at Primasonics have got a lot out of working with Universities both in terms of practical advice from a single department and in terms of inspiration regarding different departments and disciplines coming together to make something great. It is also surprising how simple is the help that we as engineers and professionals can give back to these institutions - sometimes the difference between a young researcher getting a grant to allow them to study or not is a simple letter to say that the work may be useful in the industrial sector.
..... Alex Bergus

Step Back To The Beat!

2009-08-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

Have you ever actually stepped back in time – really stepped back in time – well I have!

40 plus years ago I used to be a drummer and could also write drum music. A few weeks ago I visited a friend of mine who as well as being an excellent guitar player runs a company which organises events, especially musical events and he knows many of the current UK jazz greats.

His name is Alan Armstrong and in his ‘front room’ he has a kind of studio with a drum kit slap bang in the middle of it. He was under strict instructions to ‘get rid’ so I bought it from him and it is now sitting proudly in my garage! Right now I am learning to both play again and to read drum music. I can tell you that 40 years makes a hell of a big difference as to how my hands, arms, feet and legs now move! However it is totally therapeutic for me if not for my neighbours.

Alan, being a life time musician had the drum kit wired up to around six microphones linked to an amplifier which enabled him to balance the entire various different drum and cymbal sounds without any one sound predominating – I am not as lucky as I can not afford this ‘balancing’ luxury. So when friends call at the house when I am playing the drum kit, they first of all hear is the base drum beat and they can not hear the ‘hi-hat’ cymbals until they are outside my garage door. Why is that?

Well, it is exactly the same reason why our range of Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners is effective over such a wide range of process, power generation and bulk storage applications and plant sizes. Basically the lower the sound – the longer is the sound wavelength and the further it travels (base drum or PAS-60). The higher the sound – the shorter the sound wavelength and so it travels over a much shorter distance (cymbal or PAS-420). Look at the explanation in this link

By the way, I don’t think that my drumming ‘skills’ in any way match those of 7 year old Jacob Armen – but I really do try!

Bless My Sole!

2009-07-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

OK so it’s part of the opening line of the Elvis hit ‘I’m All Shook Up’ but I am talking ‘Fish’ here.

You should know by now that I like to cook, I find it therapeutic, perhaps because it is such a vastly different activity to acoustic cleaning technology.

Whilst at my local excellent fishmonger The Fish Cellar in Penrith, Cumbria I had a look at Neil’s wide selection of flat fish. I never quite realised that there were so many different types. Here are a few of the 400+ species:-

Sole – Turbot – Plaice – Halibut – Brill – Dab – Flounder – Megrim

The most obvious characteristic of the flatfish family is their asymmetry, with both eyes being on the same side of their head. Another typical characteristic is the top skin is pigmented, often to serve as camouflage. Perhaps the two species which I buy to cook with are the Halibut and my favourite, the Dover Sole. The Halibut has a dark brownish skin, forked tail and a lateral stripe. It is usually between 500 mm – 1400 mm, weighing between 5 kg – 70 kg.

The Dover Sole is a much smaller, grey brown in colour with dark spots and grows to between 200 mm – 460 mm. To me it is the Queen of flat fish and is renowned for its delicate flavour. That is why I always cook it in a simple manner, either on the bone (which I prefer) of off the bone as fillets (which everyone else seems to prefer).

So this time Mark at the Fish Cellar kindly skinned and filleted the Dover Soles for me. If you would like to try this task for yourself follow this video link.

Start by melting some butter (with a little vegetable oil to stop the butter from burning) in a large frying pan to a reasonably hot temperature, dip the dried fillets in flour, shaking off the excess. Fry gently with some lemon rind, say two minutes max on each side, place on a plate, splash on some lemon juice, sprinkle with a little chopped parsley and serve with buttered whole baby potatoes and French beans.

Simple but very effective – just like our Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners!

What's In A Name!

2009-06-20T01:37:00.000-07:00

When I first ‘dabbled’ in the fascinating world of acoustic cleaning technology I did so within my then existing company Sibus. It did not take me long to realise some lessons that I had to learn:

I needed to recruit qualified acoustic engineers
I needed to seek Government funding in order to develop my ideas
I needed to learn as quickly and thoroughly about those industries which would benefit from such innovative technologies
I needed to establish a dedicated company with a distinctive name

It has taken over ten years to achieve but we are now the world’s leading company specialising in audiosonic acoustic cleaners. It has been and continues to be a tremendous experience with sales in over 45 countries worldwide – and largely thanks to our unique name - PRIMASONICS®

On the face of it the name simply tells you about us – we are the best (PRIMA) and offer audiosonic cleaning solutions (SONICS).

It is quite a unique name which we have protected by Registered Trademark. The only other ‘competitor’ which comes close is a punk band of the same name which was the subject of one of my previous blogs!

Whilst deciding on a name, obviously I looked at other alternatives, one being Primasound, however I am very glad that I did not choose this name because if you search on Google today for primasound you will find a very mixed bag of results including a German online music shop Primasound and a website about Chakra music Primasounds.

PRIMASONICS® - a great name offering superb solutions in preventing particulate build up and maintaining material flow!

The Cock & Hens Vs The Red Dot

2009-05-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

Football has always been in my blood and of course it started back in Northern Ireland when I started to go watch Glentoran, a soccer club based in the East End of Belfast. Their main (and richer) rivals were Linfield from South Belfast who were supported by both my dad and older brother.

As this soccer season draws to an end I am extremely proud and happy to announce that Glentoran pipped Linfield to this year’s Irish League title by a single point. Glentoran FC has had a wonderful history - none more than in the 1967-68 season when competing in the European League Winners Cup they played the mighty Benfica including the legendary Eusebio. I was at Glentoran’s ground, The Oval, for the first leg and witnessed a thrilling 1 – 1 draw. In the return leg the mighty Glens held Benfica to a 0 – 0 draw, Benfica going through on the away goal rule. I still have a copy of this old black & white team photograph (Photo A).

Although Glentoran’s European adventures began in 1914, I remember in my youth, that, because it was customary to exchange badges etc., with opposing teams in Europe, Glentoran found themselves somewhat embarrassed by not having any. The nickname for Glentoran is the ‘Cock & Hens’ and so the then Courage brewery, whose emblem was a cockerel, stepped in to donate some of their badges so that the Glens had something to present to their opponents. That emblem has stuck ever since and appears on the Glendora Club Badge (see photo left).

To me it highlights the importance of having an effective yet simple logo with which to associate your company. At Primasonics we have recently revised our logo to include a red dot:

This red dot will become a focal point in all our literature and advertising.

Indeed you will start to notice that even the lid of the Wave Generator attached to the Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners will also be red.

Simple & Successful!

Bend It - Like Beckham!

2009-04-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

I love to visit Mallorca (Majorca to the unitiated) and try to learn about their proud culture and excellent cuisine. I was talking with a good friend of mine, Juan Mensol who runs a busy bar & restaurant in Pto Alcudia and he was telling me about the special Mallorcan bread knife called Oreinas. This knife has a specially curved blade which makes it ideal for cutting of slices from a bread roll. This specially designed knife originates from the town of Llucmajor which is situated about 15 km from Palma Airport. It has a delightful town square and its main industry was shoemaking. In addition it is also where the Oreinas knives are manufactured.

(Left: Photograph A)
It reminded me that several models of our Acoustic Cleaner range also are available in a specially designed curved version. Both the PAS-75 and PAS-60 models are available in both straight and curved options. Why the curved option? Well both the PAS-75 & PAS-60 are extremely powerful acoustic cleaners and their sonic material de-bonding effect covers a great area and at a 360 degree angle. Therefore, because they have these long wave frequencies the horns themselves have overall lengths of between 2.4m and 3.2m it is just not possible to mount these units where either space is not available or where they would restrict access.

(Right: Photograph B)

Two typical examples are:

Firstly, where they are installed on the side walls of say a large boiler economizer section which has a walkway along the side (see photograph A).

Or ...

Secondly, where they are installed on top of a spray dryer with restricted space between the top of the dryer and the building roof (see photograph B) – curvy ideas or what!

Indian Food, Friendship & Acoustic Cleaning Success

2009-03-04T05:02:00.000-08:00

There's an old fashioned saying "Fortune favours the brave". Whilst it can relate to finding the courage to overcome difficult odds, it can sometimes apply to where you don't feel like doing something but then do it and enjoy really positive results.

This has happened to me and is where this blog post's title comes in:

Indian Food, Friendship & Acoustic Cleaning Success

Some time ago I was contacted by a potential customer for our acoustic cleaner business. They were based in India and asked me at very short notice if I could meet with them up in Edinburgh, Scotland where they happened to be on a visit. I had a busy schedule at the time and a trip up to Edinburgh was going to cause me problems so I was tempted to say that I could not make it. However, I relented on the idea and decided to be positive, making the trip after all.

I thought how nice it would be to take my contact to eat somewhere that would appeal to him so checked out the options in Edinburgh and opted for a super Indian restaurant where they served vegetarian food. The result was not an immediate business deal but something I value more - the building of a lasting friendship based on mutual interest and enthusiasm for the progressive development of the cement industry.

So where does the old adage I mentioned come in? Well, over time our friendship has born fruit from a business point of view. My Indian friend (at ACC India) has worked on large scale worldwide projects involving the cement industry and our acoustic cleaners have actually been installed on some of those projects to solve side wall material build up and blocking within large cement silos.

The Obajana Cement plant in Kogi state Nigeria is a good example - our silo cleaning equipment including the Prima Whip has been working there since 2007 on 4 of their cement storage silos, which were then each fitted with twin model PAS-60 Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners. The results have been so successful that the company have now ordered a further 8 PAS-60 acoustic cleaner units for the remaining 4 silos.

Read more about Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners in Nigeria in an article I recently posted at Bulk Online.

Primasonics will rock you!

2009-02-12T01:12:00.000-08:00

I have just discovered that Primasonics International has now got some hot competition from guess who? – Primasonics.

Confused? Well let me explain. You may be aware that I prefer big band music, but our Director or Technology, Alex Bergus is into more extreme music and he discovered a punk band named PRIMASONICS. This is how their website describes them – ‘Five music vets getting back together in order to down a few brews, make some great noise…and change the world? Nah…that’s too big of a job. But someone has to show the new school what it’s all about. Pashion, not fashion, baby!’

On their website you can play a few of their ‘songs’, one of which is called – Not Another Protest Song’. Well it certainly has a powerful ‘frequency’ and ‘de-bonded’ me from my chair! So it just goes to prove that PRIMASONICS stands for POWER DE-BONDING. Our range of Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners has a ‘passion’ for de-bonding a wide range dry process materials and boiler plant ash in a very innovative and effective manner. If you are new to acoustic cleaning technology, take a look via the link.

By the way, if you are like me and prefer good swing music, here is a link just for you - read about Jan Eberle.

Look for the title ‘Just me, just you’, then sit back and enjoy!

Jan Eberle is some lady!

Music is the Food of Primasonics Development

2009-01-22T02:35:00.000-08:00

At Primasonics we are totally committed to a continuing programme of R & D involving two UK leading acoustic universities. One of our ongoing projects is the design of an ultra powerful 30 Hz acoustic cleaner. We know from our extensive market research that there is a very good potential market for such a model and so to boost our innovative inspiration we turned to the world of music, or to be more correct, to study the design and performance of those musical instruments which were specifically designed to provide pure tones at lower frequencies and a very interesting and informative exercise it turned out to be.

Two musical instruments were of particular interest to me – the Sousaphone and the Wagner Tuba.

In basic terms the Sousaphone is a large brass wind instrument, similar in range to the tuba but having a more flared ‘bell’ and round shape making it suitable to be carried in marching bands. It gets its name from John Philip Sousa, who was in charge of the US Marine Band in the 1890s. He asked instrument makers J W Pepper to modify an existing instrument called the Helicon and henceforth this musical instrument was named in his honour.

This led me on to study the Wagner Tuba, which I believe was first produced in Germany by instrument maker Adolphe Sax who then demonstrated it to composer Richard Wagner in 1853. Wagner really liked the horn’s deep, rich sound and began to incorporate it into his orchestral compositions – hence it became known as the Wagner Tuba.

A good friend of mine who also happens to be an excellent composer and accomplished guitarist, Stephen Caudel composed 'The Edel Rhapsody’ for Solo Bb Tenor Wagner Tuba and Orchestra, first performed in 1993 in Carlisle Cathedral in the North of England.

Stephen’s undoubted musical talent and inspiration fired my own desire to provide all our Primasonics customers with the widest range, the finest quality and the best performing range of Acoustic Cleaners – worldwide!

Let Primasonics Take The Worry Out Of Carbon Black Build Up And Removal

2008-12-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

With sales in over 45 countries worldwide, it is inevitable that as well as eliminating particulate build up problems and enhancing material flow in our key industries such as Cement, Power Generation, Petrochemicals & Food, that other dry processing and storage industries now seek our help. One such industry is Carbon Black.

There are two ways in which this very fine black ‘powder’ can be manufactured. The two manufacturing processes are Furnace Black and Thermal Black and they account for nearly all of the world's carbon blacks, with the Furnace Black process being the most common. The Furnace Black process uses heavy oils as their source of feedstock whilst the Production Furnace system uses a closed reactor to atomize the feedstock oil under very carefully controlled conditions, for example, primarily temperature and pressure.

Around 8 million tonnes are produced per annum and used within a wide range of industries such as pigment and automobile tyres. Carbon Black is a somewhat hazardous material and there have been a the subject of a large number of published papers on the affects of human ingestion of carbon black particles

Because the material is classed as a Group 2B Carcinogen (possibly carcinogenic to humans) these papers deal with such topics as respiratory effects, genotoxicity along with the study of several forms of cancer such as oesophageal cancer, lung cancer, bladder and stomach cancers.

The International Carbon Black Association has published a very useful user’s guide, available in PDF format which includes reference to any human entry into a confined space (such as silos, hoppers and baghouse filters). If such human entry cannot be avoided then they strongly recommend that pre-testing for oxygen and carbon monoxide levels as well as for other toxic gases is carried out. Primasonics International now has carbon black clients who have significantly reduced the need for manual entry into such plant areas as silos and filters by installing our range of Acoustic Cleaners. These use sound waves to prevent material build up and eliminate blockages.

Therefore within a silo a suitably sized acoustic cleaner will prevent any side wall build up and bridging, a typical silo top installation is seen in photograph 1 (left).

Likewise by installing an acoustic cleaner in a baghouse filter, material build up and hopper pluggage are eliminated and in addition, filter bag life is significantly extended. A typical filter installation is shown in photograph 2 (right).

The Primasonics range of Acoustic Cleaners certainly eliminate carbon black particulate build up within a number of key plant prcesses and storage areas, thus eliminating the need for manual entry to remove these blockages and clean the plant. To read more visit our carbon black plant cleaning page.

Silo Cleaning Or A Theatre Show - Just tell ’em the ending first!

2008-11-27T07:35:00.000-08:00

I love going to the theatre, especially to see musicals. I have seem so many fantastic musicals over the years ranging from the lavish 1972 Drury Lane production of 'Gone With The Wind', starring Julie Ritchie, Harve Presel, a young Bonny Langford and one of my favourite musical ladies – Patricia Michael - to the recent excellent amateur production of 'Thoroughly Modern Millie', performed by the Newcastle Musical Theatre Company at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne.

However one of my all time favourite musicals is 'Blood Brothers' by famous Liverpudlian writer Willy Russell which has now been running in London’s West End for 20 years! It is unusual in the fact that when the show opens, it tells you the ending, before going on to commence at the start. Most people who see the show for the first time, simply do not accept that the ending is true!

It reminds me of many visits I have made to potential acoustic cleaning clients over the years to introduce them to the proven benefits of both our range of Acoustic Cleaners or our Safe-Remote-Efficient Prima Whip silo cleaning systems. I usually point out the final benefits to be obtained by eliminating particulate build up and maintaining material flow – before proceeding onto the ‘technical story’. However many potential clients simply do not accept what I say up front about the final positive benefits and therefore that is why we have introduced our very successful Acoustic Cleaner Rental Programme.

So now any potential Primasonics client can experience the tremendous benefits provided by our wide range of acoustic cleaners before committing to purchase them – like having your very own theatre preview!

Modern Day David & Goliath - With Acoustic Cleaners

2008-10-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

I am sure that most of us are at least slightly familiar with the biblical story of David and Goliath – King Saul and the Israelites faced the Philistines in battle at Socoh in Judah. The Philistines has a giant of a champion warrior called Goliath who came in front of his army twice per day for forty days to challenge the Israelites to send our their champion to fight him. The Israelites were afraid and so there was no one to challenge Goliath. Young David, who was bringing food to his brothers decided to fight the Philistine monster and Saul reluctantly agreed. Goliath appeared armed to the teeth whilst David brought with him only his sling and his staff. The rest, as they say, is history. David fired a stone from his sling which struck Goliath on the forehead – winner David!

Recently at a gala presentation event sponsored by the CN Media Group, held at the Rheged Centre near Penrith, Primasonics International fought off the challenge of the massive blue chip company BAE Systems to scope the prestigious Exporter Of The Year Award due because 85% of Acoustic Cleaners sales are exported to over 45 countries world wide. All of us at Primasonics International feel extremely proud to have won this award and in the process defeated the Goliath company of BAE Systems. The photograph shows our Export Manager, Lisa Robinson receiving the award.

Award Rewards For Acoustic Cleaning Technology

2008-10-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Primasonics International has been privileged in the last 3 years to receive established British industry awards in recognition of its success as an innovative technology and export trade company with its range of acoustic cleaners.

In 2005 we won 2 awards - the 'Pride of Cumbria Award For Innovation' and the 'Passport To Export' award. The latter was presented to me personally by BBC Presenter Adrian Chiles in recognition of our success in the international market, having increased our turnover in export trade by no less than 400% in the 2 years 2003-2005.

In 2006 we were honoured with the North Regional National Award for Innovation.

In 2007 with over 200 finalists and guests present. we won the prestigious Innovation & Technology Award in the Cumbria Business Awards. The reason quoted by the judges for our declaration as category winner was that we had been able to demonstrate a powerful worldwide status in a challenging environment and were considered to be a hi-tech, fast growing company.

This month (October 2008) we will be 1 of only 3 finalists nominated for the Exporter Of The Year Award at the CN Group Business Awards on 30 October. The category sponsors are HSBC bank and the main award sponsors are Invest in Cumbria and Business Link Northwest. Whether we win or not, we feel privileged to receive this nomination, particularly in the light of the company we will be keeping in the final - no less than:

BAE Systems (submarine and shipbuilding services)

3SL (software systems company supplying the likes of Nasa, Samsung and Boeing.

Good company indeed. Irrespective of who wins the award, there will be no losers in this 'race'. All of us have made significant achievements in export trade and are helping the British economy retain a worldwide high profile for innovation and technology.

Photographs from our previous export awards presentations

Fit For Purpose?

2008-09-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

OK I am the first to admit that I am getting a little bit ‘rounder’ as I get older and that I need to do something about it. This was brought home to me in no uncertain terms last week when I made a visit to a large power generation plant in London. So off I set to catch the 7:29 train from Penrith to London, with my small suitcase containing all my safety gear – overalls, safety boots, hard hat, goggles, high visibility jacket and gloves.

I arrived at Euston Station and caught the tube to Tottenham Vase (not far from the Spurs ground), then a short taxi ride to a fantastic plant called London Waste. This power generation plant has five complete boiler lines and burns all the collected household waste for London. The energetic and enthusiastic plant manager was interested in installing Primasonics acoustic cleaners within one of his five economiser sections of waste to energy boilers. He had no experience of acoustic cleaners in economiser cleaning and obviously needed to talk through our proposals and feel reassured that acoustic cleaning technology would far surpass his existing steam soot blowers in terms of efficiency, performance, unit cost and maintenance costs.

One of the boilers was off line and so after getting kitted out in all my safety gear we headed into the plant to take a very close look at the economiser. The easy bit was simply looking in through several side wall hatches via access platforms. My ‘guide’ then suggested that we needed to go to the very top of this large piece of plant and ‘pop’ down through a hatch into the unit, balancing on steel girders in order to take some key photographs. Maybe it is some sort of obsession with me but I find that most power plant managers are extremely thin, fit men and so he quickly disappeared down through the hatch onto the steel inner frame. OK I managed to squeeze myself down after him and made myself ‘comfortable’ sitting on the steelwork. It turned out that this ‘look see’ was extremely important as there were a set of internal baffles which were not clearly seen on the dimensional drawing which would affect the type and position of the acoustic cleaners.

Ok job done, so now to get out – ‘how do we achieve this?’ I asked – ‘easy, just swing over onto this beam, grab the side of the hatch above you, pull yourself up and swing your legs out', came his reply which he quickly achieved. After a short prayer, I managed to get my upper body out of the hatch; however it took some time to ‘extract’ the lower half. I pulled and tugged at the same time promising faithfully to myself to start visiting the gym again. Finally I was free and all in one piece.

The result of my day’s activities was to form a friendly and trusting relationship with the plant manager and to return to Penrith tired but happy that use of each existing soot blower on that site will be redundant and replaced by the modern, innovative acoustic cleaners.

Photo: acoustic cleaner in position for economiser cleaning

The Hidden Power Of Sound!

2008-09-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Imagine a world without sound – no bird song, human voices, music – like total deafness.

Scientists tell us that without our ears to hear, there would be no sound. However sound is not all aural; indeed sound may be described as the passage of very rapid pressure fluctuations through a medium by means of a vibrating force. Our ear does not actually hear sound; it is a pressure sensitive mechanism that detects very rapid pressure fluctuations which we interpret as sound.

To learn more on this subject visit this link

I give you two examples to prove that, in fact, we do not either need ears or indeed be able to hear to experience the effects of sound.

In a human environment, a deaf person can ‘hear’ what someone else is saying by means of feeling the vibrations of someone talking against an inflated balloon – he or she are ‘reading’ the vibrations which come from ‘a vibrating force’ the tongue, passing these differing vibrations through ‘a medium’, the balloon. So sound is not only aural, it is vibrational, mental even. The classic example is Beethoven who composed symphonies in his mind and via vibrations even though he could not, in the true sense of the word, hear his own music. Likewise, Enrico Caruso, the great Italian tenor, was capable of shattering a wine glass with his powerful high C – the glass actually shattered due to the particular powerful vibrational frequency achieved. I mentioned in one of my first ‘blogs’ ‘Blast From the Past’ that I was inspired to begin studying the powerful debonding effect which sound waves at particular frequencies had after watching a video of the Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in which the evil Blofeld caused a huge avalanche simply by exploding a flare in the sky.

Over the last ten years Primasonics International has invested heavily to produce a range of high quality, high performing acoustic cleaners which are employed in a wide range of industries and applications to both prevent particulate build up and facilitate maximum material flow and it is in fact these very rapid pressure fluctuations which cause dry material to debond from both adjoining particles and from any structure. This innovative technology, encompassed within our range of acoustic cleaners, is now solving material build-up and flow problems within a wide range of industries and plant applications in over 45 countries worldwide.

Coal Dust - The Badge Of Miners

2008-08-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Coal dust – the kind that coats a miners face and body – his lungs. It fills his mouth so that he has to spit, rinse his mouth from time to time with his water bottle. Imagine a long-wall face, underground a hundred metres or so, where half a dozen miners are strung along it. The ‘stonemen’ on the night shift have increased the height, above and below the coal, however the ‘fillers’ still have to work on their knees. They wear knee pads and most have on a short-sleeved vest and shorts. The coal has been ‘fired’ by placing charges at several metre intervals – the coal dust – a thick heavy cloud! The ‘fillers’ wait until it settles a little although the air is never clear. The lights on the miners’ safety helmets blink through the murk, their heads swinging back and forth as they shovel the coal behind them to be taken away to the surface. This goes on all shift and each miner on the face is filling a rectangle of coal one metre high, several metres long, by the depth of the cut, about 1½ metres.

In 1948 the ‘fillers’ on a long wall face at a North East British Colliery earned £20.00 (€25/$40) per week. The ‘stonemen’ earned half that amount per week and unskilled men working underground earned around a quarter of the ‘fillers’ wage per week. They came to the surface after each shift, coated with coal dust. At that time the colliery did not have its own baths, so the men went home dirty. Coal dust got into everything and was even sealed into the wounds they received whilst working – forming blue streaks – The Badge of Miners!

I cannot take credit for writing this imaginative and informative piece - it was written by my very good friend Dr Jeff Smith, himself once a miner. It does however concatenate with the solutions that my company Primasonics can offer those power generation plants and cement plants which handle coal, especially fine milled coal which tends to both ‘rathole’ and ‘bridge’ in coal silos & hoppers. It is perhaps fitting that our Acoustic Cleaners can eliminate some modern day problems associated with the storage and discharge of fine coal.

Acoustic Cleaners To Bicycles - Innovation Runs In The Family

2008-08-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

In previous blogs, I have mentioned that I was brought up in the small country town of Dromore, Co Down, Northern Ireland.

My mother’s maiden name was Magill which was a widely known family name in the surrounding area. Although with the development of our dynamic range of acoustic cleaners I claim to be an innovative sort of chap, it seems that perhaps I am following in the Magill family tradition.

My mother’s father was James Magill who was a cobbler in Dromore and the family lived in a small terrace house built in 1870. My grandfather used the front room for his cobbling business and the family, all eight of them lived in the back room and upstairs. Around 1903 cycling was becoming very fashionable and indeed affordable and so he decided to be innovative and learn how to build and repair bicycles. At that time this was quite a risky venture and so he kept up his cobbling during the day and concentrated on the cycle business during the evening and night time. He always had a small sign on display which read ‘DO NOT ASK FOR CREDIT AS IT OFTEN OFFENDS’

Well he obviously made a success of his new innovative business venture and in 1913 he bought the house next door to extend his cycle build and repair business. Indeed some years later he moved to a larger house in Princess Street, Dromore which still stands today. The original house in Meeting Street where my mother was born was demolished brick by brick and re-built at the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum near Belfast.

I had a brief opportunity to visit our original Magill family home last year and here I am standing in my Grandfather’s cycle repair room.

Innovative business ideas seem to run in the family!

Acoustic Cleaners - 100% Effective – Proof Positive!

2008-07-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

I firmly believe that not only do we design and build:-

The best quality acoustic cleaners
Offer the widest range of models
With the most powerful and consistently reliable performance

but we also have the finest technical back-up and R & D department. Let me give you an example of why I can make this claim.

One of the most frequently asked questions is:
Will your Acoustic Cleaner Damage My Steel Boiler Or Concrete Silo?
Well the answer is most affirmatively - NO
However can we prove it – YES

So let me show you the results of one of our many extensive field trials which proves that our powerful sonic waves, at the frequencies we use, that is between 420 Hz and 60 Hz, are totally absorbed by the material to prevent particulate build up and maximise material flow.

One of our flour mill clients had a series of concrete flour silos and they were having a lot of problems with flour building up on the side walls, then collapsing on mass and spilling out like water from the silo dischargers. They were very keen to install our acoustic cleaners/sonic horns, however they had great concerns that the sound waves would be absorbed by and damage the concrete silos.

In their field trial we measured both the constant existing vibrations that occur within and around the concrete silos, such as fork lift truck passing by or electric motor vibration etc. We did this by fitting accelerometers to the silo walls. We then placed a sound meter some 10 metres/33’ down the silo and the silo was filled with flour. Finally we installed a Model PAS-75 acoustic cleaner/sonic horn on top of the silo and sounded for a few seconds at periodic intervals.
The graph below measures Frequency along the X axis and dB along the Y axis.

The orange graph is measuring the already occurring vibrations of the silo picked up by the accelerometers and the blue graph is recording what the sound meter, buried deep within the flow is picking up. You can clearly see that the sound meter is clearly recording a high burst of acoustic energy at 75 Hz and again at 150 Hz (2 x 75 Hz). You will also clearly see that none of these powerful ‘debonding’ sonic sound waves have been absorbed into the concrete silo structure.
This is just one of many similar field trials which we have carried out on silos, boilers, baghouse filters and ESPs.

Proof positive that the power of our acoustic cleaners is 100% effective in debonding the material with 0% effect on the structures.