Surface Treatment goes Deep

Winner of the Imerys Sustainable Development Challenge 2009 for Environment

The Sylacauga, Alabama treatment facility turned issues with a key product into an opportunity to improve both customer satisfaction and environmental performance.

Material and energy losses, together with unexplained quality complaints with Supercoat® calcium carbonate, led the plant's engineering team to overhaul the entire treatment process. "The system is one of the most critical operations to one of our most critical products to one of our largest customers," explains Performance Minerals North America Senior Manager Automation and Process Kevin Jones. "Who could resist that challenge?" Potential gains were identified by analyzing utilization data. This showed a series of events to address so the root cause of process variation could be tackled. "The rest was a simple series of cascading cause and effect," says Van Trang Ngo, Process Engineer.

First, energy was reduced in each hot oil system by reducing variation and tweaking setpoint controls. Use of a key, temperature-sensitive chemical was also optimized. Finally, the end product was improved through greater consistency. The percentage improvement would be reductions of 0.70% for CO₂ and 2,58% for hydrocarbon emissions. "Customers are now getting a higher quality product with significantly reduced failure conditions," adds Bill Barron, Control Systems Administrator. "We're very proud that we can lower costs and improve quality at the same time."

Multi-Disipline Problem-Solving

The impressive gains achieved by Sylacauga's process overhaul are the result of cooperation both inside and outside the plant. The team included process, project and control engineers, technicians and operators, as well as technology from Marietta R&D center. Equipment suppliers took part in problem-solving meetings and a major customer agreed to evaluate the improved product - with positive feedback.

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