Primasonics Blog

What's In A Name!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:37:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:03:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:05:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:02:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:12:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:35:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:39:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:35:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:58:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:16:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:04:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:40:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:56:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:39:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:24:00 +0000

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.

Try Before You Buy - Acoustic Cleaner Rentals

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Sometimes we forget that our acoustic cleaning technology is so innovative that many companies within key industries around the world still don't even know it exists! So when companies approach us for a solution to their material flow problems and they have never heard of the technology before, they can be understandably reticent about making the capital investment.

We can quote them excellent case studies of course with great, proven success and that sometimes works - such as the client who came to us with a waste to energy boiler problem and did not realise that there was an alternative to the aggressive cleaning system of steam soot blowers. They purchased an acoustic cleaning system from us and have not looked back, benefiting from ash build up prevention, significant cost savings and improved performance in terms of heat transfer.

However, even a good case study and client referral is not always enough. So I made the decision to put my belief in the product on the line and allow companies to enter into a rental agreement. This way they can test the product directly and have their engineers witness first hand the startling difference in performance and savings that acoustic cleaners offer.

This idea has proven a great success to date and our acoustic cleaners have gone out on rental all over the world resulting in extra sales within a matter of a few months. Recent acoustic cleaner rental agreements we have agreed to include:

for hopper cleaning operations at a port in South Africa (PAS-350 model)
for silo cleaning at a chemicals plant in Sweden (PAS-230 model)
for hopper cleaning at a major British port (PAS-75 model)
for rotary dryer cleaning at a British chemical plant (PAS-230 model)

Read more about the Primasonics® Acoustic Cleaner Rental Plan

My Very Own Irish Paddle Coal Fired Boiler Steamer!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:02:00 +0000

In my last ‘blog’ I talked about the Belfast & County Down Railway who also operated a series of coal fired paddle steamers along Belfast Lough between Belfast and the seaside town of Bangor, County Down.

The most famous of these paddle steamers was the Palmerston, later re-named the PS Bangor Castle. She was built in 1864 in Glasgow by T Wingate & Co in 1864 and was eventually scrapped in 1899. This paddle steamer was generally a simple twin cylinder diagonal paddle design, with a gross weight of 256 tonnes, a length of around 58 metres and a width of around 7 metres. This Belfast to Bangor paddle steamer service finally ended in 1915 – so how come I, as a small boy aged five, had my first ‘sailing’ adventure on board such a vessel? No, the answer is not that I am now 98 years of age!

The answer is that the last of these coal fired paddle steamers was restored and brought back into service for a couple of years during special summer sailing occasions around 1950. I went on board with my mum, dad and older brother, dressed in my Sunday best clothes and there were three things I remember most vividly about that steamer trip. Firstly they had a PA system which played that famous Irish tenor, Joseph Lock’s music and I especially remember one of his favourite songs ‘When You Were Sweet Sixteen’ – listen to it on this U-Tube link

The second thing I remember, which amazed me at the time, was that I could have an ice cream on board – within my five year old ‘world’ I found this quite exciting. Perhaps for that reason, the ice cream was the best I ever tasted! Ice cream has never again tasted so good until I recently started to make different ice creams at home from the variety of recipes I found on a fabulous ice cream recipes web site.

My third recollection whilst on board was watching the huge paddles churning through the water protected on top by a fancy carved white wooden frame. As I watched these paddles I saw that on occasions they picked up seaweed and other debris from the water and a member of crew was stationed at each of the twin paddles to warn the captain should any of the debris look like blocking the paddle.

I think about these paddle wheels when at Primasonics we are requested to find a solution to vibration problems on ID Fans caused by a build up of particulate on the impeller blades. This can be a very expensive problem as the build causes the unbalance sensor to engage thus triggering the immediate shutdown of a significant section of the plant. By installing the correct model of Primasonics Acoustic Cleaner on the fan casing, the particulate build up is either eliminated or certainly greatly reduced thus removing the necessity for any unscheduled shutdowns.

This next link provides details of one of our many case studies, this particular one involving a FLS Type HAF 290 fan on a cement company’s clinker plant fan.

The innocence of youth and the treat of great tasting ice cream – what a combination!

Letting Off Some Steam!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:58:00 +0000

I am going to write a couple of articles about topics which as a young boy became ingrained in my mind and still remain within my ever-aging memory bank. This first one concerns my experiences of steam trains, especially between my Northern Ireland home town of Dromore, County Down and my favourite seaside town (even to this day) of Newcastle, County Down. The second article will be based on my experience on board an ancient steam paddle boat which sailed along Belfast Lough between Belfast and the holiday town of Bangor. The B&CDR ran this daily service until 1915 (no I am not that old!)

The Belfast & County Down Railway formed in 1848 had several key lines but as I lived in a country town of Dromore, the main line from Belfast to Newcastle was ‘my’ railway line, especially as my love of Newcastle, County Down has never waned. This particular line opened in 1869 and as was the case through the Victorian railway heyday period, the railway companies built grand hotels at the end of key rail terminals. Such was the case in Newcastle with the building of the impressive (and today, totally marvellous) Slieve Donard Hotel in 1897 (see picture). To see the opulent splendour of this hotel today have a look at this site. At the same time they also helped form the Down Royal Golf Club now considered to be one of the finest golf courses in all Ireland.

The steam locomotives were mainly constructed by Beyer Peacock except for two which were built in Belfast by Harland & Wolff. The carriages, I remember well, were simple six wheelers, non-corridor with gas lighting, replaced later by a slightly more modern but similarly designed carriage. A few years before the line closed in 1950, they introduced the first diesel-electric locomotives. When very young I used to hide in the waiting room when, as I then saw the huge, black, soot and steam emitting ‘monsters’ come into view at the Dromore station. Here is a picture of a typical B&CDR steam locomotive at Newcastle station.

As a kid I was fascinated by Newcastle station; although small it had a massive wooden water tower and a mechanically operated locomotive turning table. I also had the opportunity recently to ‘step aboard’ the footplate of one of these old steam engines when I visited the fantastic Ulster Folk & Transport Museum at Hollywood, near Belfast. Here I am, fulfilling one of my childhood dreams.

Of course as excited young boys, my brother and I were for ever poking our heads out of the carriage window which usually resulted in us getting particles of soot being ‘deposited’ in our eyes. The main means of removal was for our mother to lick the end of her hanky and poke out the offending ‘soot build up’ – such simple but happy excursions!

It perhaps is somewhat ironic that today my company Primasonics offers an equally innovative, if much more modern means to prevent soot build up (also ash) within industrial boilers, superheaters, economisers and air heaters etc within the power generation industry. Our range of Acoustic Cleaners, also referred to as Sonic Horns, use sound waves to debond the ash from the heat tubes thus significantly increasing the overall thermal efficiency.

This is an effective, economical means of preventing ash build up without any fear of causing physical damage to the heat tubes or structures. Hope you find our web site as interesting and exciting as young Donald found his steam train trips to the seaside!

Samphire Sets Your Taste Buds Tingling

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:53:00 +0000

OK after this blog I promise to stop twittering on about seafood recipes - for a little while at any rate!. However last year I discovered a wonderful new taste - the salty, zingy taste of samphire – let me explain.

In Penrith, Cumbria there is an excellent fish, seafood and game shop called The Fish Cellar. Many times during the summer and autumn periods when buying fish and seafood I noticed a large bowl of what looked like fine, green asparagus. One day my curiosity got the better of me and I asked Neil the owner what it was. ‘Samphire – do you want to try some?’ Well I did and am now ‘hooked’ on the stuff. It is usually available in our fish shop from July through to October, some coming from France, some from Mediterranean countries.

Marsh samphire (or salicornia europaea to give it its proper name) is also known as glasswort or pickle-plant and is a fleshy-leaved green plant that grows on seaside marshes. As I mentioned it has a sea-salty flavour and a crisp, interesting texture. Neil informed me that all that is needed to cook samphire is to place it in a colander and pour a kettle of boiling water over it, shake and add a dollop of butter. There are lots of interesting recipes, my favourite involved monkfish and Parma ham. However, I thought that you may like to try my second favourite recipe: Shrimp & Samphire Risotto – its scrumpcious! The recipe if from Rick’s Stein’s ‘Seafood Lovers Guide’.
It needs a little bit of preparation but is so tasty and filling – try it!

Something Fishy!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:54:00 +0000

Since writing about my Irish octopus dish, I have become even more ‘hooked’ (couldn't resist that!) on preparing and enjoying fish dishes. I find that Delia Smith within her Delia Online web site has an excellent section on fish and accompanying sauce recipes. It is well worth taking a look at this site as it also gives loads of useful information on such topics as frying, grilling and poaching fish, making good fish batter and wine recommendations.

So last week I prepared a simple but delicious Fish Banquet. I started off with a delightful little starter called Smoked Fish Creams and then for the main course I tried her Luxury Smoked Fish Pie – well I liked smoked fish!

In between to ‘cleanse the pallet’ I offered my guests an unusual but super white wine sorbet which I found on the Ice-Cream-Recipes. com web site - try it!

I hope you have as much fun preparing (and enjoying) this Fish Banquet as I did.

The Sands Of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:28:00 +0000

As I stroll along the lovely beach at Port d’Alcudia in Northern Mallorca I can’t help noticing the ‘growth’ of a new industry – sand sculpting. Most of the ‘creations’ I have seen are truly a patient ‘work of art’ and are very stunning, especially when viewed at night when surrounded by candles. Indeed there are several web sites dedicated to the work of these ‘sand sculpture artists’.

Two examples are: http://www.sculpturesinsand.com/ and http://www.sandsculpture.co.uk

I am told the secret to creating good sand sculptures, in addition to having the talent, is to dampen and compact the sand.

This got me thinking that whilst dampening and compacting a dry material such as sand is an essential plus for creating a sand sculpture, when it occurs in bulk dry material storage silos and hoppers such as cement silos and hoppers, it creates tremendous problems which result in reduced storage, poor material discharge, ratholing and bridging of material.

Thankfully all these problems can be prevented by the introduction of Acoustic Cleaners which both prevent side wall build up and also bridging over the silo outlets. Primasonics International has solved bulk material storage and flow problems in over 45 countries worldwide.

Octopus Hibernia

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:06:00 +0000

My local pub is the Crown Inn in a little village called Little Blencow, near Penrith in North Cumbria. The owner/chef is a fellow Irishman called Adrian Carroll and for a small pub, his ‘specials’ board is excellent. As I like to cook, I am forever asking him how you prepare ‘this’ and make ‘that’ and about a month ago we got onto the subject of cooking octopus, which I like to eat when abroad. It is such an interesting creature but usually only has a short life span of around six months. They have eight arms (you should not call them tentacles) and three hearts.

Anyway I digress. Adrian decided to devise an octopus dish with an Irish flavour and he named it ‘Octopus Hibernia’ (Hibernia being the classical Latin name for Ireland). I was not disappointed; it truly is a fantastic dish to make so I thought that I would provide you all with the recipe. By the way if you buy fresh octopus you must put it in the freezer for around 48 hours to break down the cell structure before defrosting and cooking. One of the reasons I was thinking about the octopus was that it has the same number of arms as Primasonics have models of Acoustic Cleaner! ()

Here is the recipe for Octopus Hibernia – cook and enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 x block of butter
1 x large Spanish onion
1 x green pepper
1 x orange pepper
6 x garlic cloves (crushed)
2 x medium octopus cut into finely slices tentacle rings - see NOTE below for preparation

Method:
Melt butter in a large paella type pan (20”)
Heat butter until it foams then add garlic, cook for 20 seconds
Add octopus and fry for 1 minute
Add slices onion and peppers and fry for 2 minutes
Season with salt & Pepper
Bake in the oven 150◦C for 1½ hours, if onions begin to brown too much, cover pan with foil.

NOTE: The fresh octopus should be first placed in a freezer for 12 hours. Then defrost thoroughly and wash. Clean the octopus by cutting the tentacles away from the head, below the beak. Cut away and discard the beak, turn rest of body inside out and remove ink sac plus internal organs.

‘Soots’ You Sir!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:50:00 +0000

As we are involved with clients worldwide within the Power Generation industry in effective ash removal, I started thinking about how soot/ash had always been a troublesome by-product associated with the burning of fossil fuels and how previous generations had attempted to deal with soot/ash removal. With the advent of Victoria Age Britain came a new soot removal system called the ‘climbing boys’. These were young boys who were small enough to climb up chimneys of large houses and clean them from the inside. These poor unfortunates were greatly abused by their notorious employers and as a result suffered from deformed joints, broken bones, burns and various types of cancers as well as sometimes chocking to death by inhaling soot. Indeed it was not until 1840 that parliament passed a law forbidding anyone under the age of 21 to sweep chimneys.

Those employed within ‘Industrial Victorian Britain’ faired little better. Although few employees actually had to physically climb up the inside of large factory chimneys, nevertheless the huge emissions of soot from such chimneys blighted the lives of the factory workers who lived in cramped terrace housing close by their place of work. They seldom saw the sun and blue skies, instead permanent, sooty smog hung over the towns resulting in the guarantee of an early grave. In the cotton towns of Lancashire around 1830, there were some 560 cotton mills, employing 110,000 people, 35,000 of them children, all working a 14 hour day. For more detailed reading go to http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/history/victorian/Victorian1.html

Even during my childhood and teenage years, the cleaning of modern domestic chimneys seemed equally as old fashioned; such as using either retractable soot cleaners with a circular brush at the tip or sucking the soot down, via a suction fan, into a cotton filter, located in the grate. However the infamous big city ‘smog’ of the fifties-early sixties has long since disappeared and we can now all enjoy blue skies and sunshine along with our ‘non- polluting’ central heating systems.

Today within the power generation industry, old technologies such as sootblowers are giving way to cleaner, more efficient innovative technologies such as acoustic cleaners, The soot blower can be one of three types – long or short retractable or rotary, fixed position. The cleaning media is usually a mixture of steam and compressed air which seeks to ‘blast off’ the hard deposits which have built up on the boiler tubes, usually after every 8 hour shift cycle. The main three problems associated with this older ash/soot removal system are:-

1] Because it relies on high pressure, erosion of the tubes is common which results in loss of boiler performance and high repair costs.

2] This steam/air jet can only reach the area of boiler tube surface directly exposed to the sootblower, allowing ash/soot to still build up, sinter and harden on the non-exposed surfaces.

3] The soot blowers themselves, especially the long retractable type carry a high maintenance cost.

There is a solution to preventing ash/soot from building up on all hot boiler tube surfaces whether within the furnace area or down stream, within the superheater or economiser sections and this is the innovative Acoustic Cleaner - sometimes called a sonic sootblower or sonic horn or even an acoustic horn. These devices use audiosonic sound waves at selected frequencies to prevent the soot/ask from building up on the entire surface of the boiler tubes and without causing any structural damage whatsoever and are literally ‘maintenance free’.

So just as innovative technologies moved us from old fashioned ash/soot removal methods within Victorian Britain and in the home, so the same innovative technologies are replacing older systems to improve the overall efficiency of industries worldwide, especially power generation plants.

Saintly Days

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:37:00 +0000

It never ceases to surprise me that most English people can remember when my saint’s special day (St Patrick) is – March 17 - but cannot remember when their own special saint’s special day (St George) is. To save you from having to look it up, it is on April 23.

Saint Patrick was actually born in Roman Britain but at the age of sixteen, was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland. Did you know that Ireland has a total of three Patron Saints? In addition to Saint Patrick who died on March 17, AD 461, we have Saint Columba who died on June 9, AS 597 and Saint Brigid of Kildare who died in AD 525.

By contrast, Saint George, patron Saint of England was a soldier of the Roman Empire from the then Greek speaking Anatolia, now modern day Turkey. He is in fact the patron saint of 12 countries including England, Canada, Russia and Greece. He was born to a Christian family during the late third century. His father was from Cappadocia and served as an officer of the Roman Empire. His mother was from Lydda (now Lod in Israel) and she returned to her native country with her young son as a widow. The youth followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Roman army as soon as he was old enough. He proved to be a fine soldier and by his twenties had gained the rank of Tribune. However George was eventually tortured and killed for his Christian beliefs before Nicomedia's city wall, on April 23, 303.

The episode of St George and the Dragon was a legend, brought back with the Crusaders and retold in England until it became steeped in English folklore.

As I travel in various countries worldwide in the course of discussing the installation of our Acoustic Cleaners within the wide diversity of industrial applications, I always try and learn about local saints and heroes and at least I have a little knowledge of both Saint Patrick and George to offer in exchange.

Blast From The Past – A Defining Moment!

noreply@blogger.com (Don Cameron) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:52:00 +0000

I wonder how many of us can recall one or more ‘defining moments’ during our lifetime which truly changed some aspect of our lives. Well I can recall one such event that started me off on my fascinating career in Audiosonic Acoustic Cleaning Technologies. In simple terms acoustic cleaners are sound waves at a particular frequency which cause dry material to debond either from other materials or the surface to which they were bound to. So what was the key factor which encouraged me to form Primasonics®, develop this particular innovative and effective technology and sell it to a worldwide clientele?

James Bond is the answer; to be more precise the idea came to me when I was watching a video of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ staring George Lazenby as Bond, Diana Rigg as Tracy and Terry Savalas as the evil Blofeld. In one scene, Blofeld wanted to kill or capture Bond and his chance came when he saw Bond and Tracy skiing down the slopes. He fired a signal rocket and the resulting ‘bang’ dislodged the ice and snow, causing an avalanche which buried both Bond and Tracy. So I began to wonder why a sound wave had such a dramatic debonding effect and the rest, as they say, is history!

So thank you Blofeld for showing me the way – it certainly has been an exciting journey ever since.