Ibstock Brick Success Story
Customer: Ibstock Brick
Region: Dorket Head, Nottingham, England
Sector: Brick Manufacturing
Benefit: 60% energy savings annually
Ibstock Brick is the UK’s largest manufacturer of clay and concrete building products, employing over 2600 people in the UK and USA with annual sales of almost £430m. Ibstock plc is now one of the biggest building materials businesses quoted on the London Stock Exchange. The company’s Dorket Head site near Nottingham has been producing bricks since the 1860s and, following modern re-development, now has an output in the region of 95 million bricks per year.
Challenge:
I am very impressed with the performance of the Atlas Copco pumps. Not only have they allowed us to achieve our production increase and maintain a constant vacuum level to ensure consistent product quality, they are also quieter, occupy a footprint that’s only the size of a pallet and, better still, provide the added bonus of a potential 60% reduction in the energy demand for the process.
Solution:
The Atlas Copco GHS 350 VSD⁺ vacuum pumps handle the humid production environment at Ibstock. In the humid versions of the GHS VSD⁺ pumps, electronically controlled gas ballast and temperature management allows adaptation to the plant’s specific process and enables the pumps to handle 100% water vapour at pressures above 30 mbar(a). The gas ballast is automatically switched and pre-and-post purge cycles are provided and controlled within the unit. In contrast to ‘on-off’ control standards of other vacuum technologies, the GHS VSD⁺ pumps feature a unique pressure set point control function that ensures the pumps maintain a constant reliable level of vacuum however variable the production demand. This has helped Ibstock maintain consistent product quality, achieve increased productivity and benefit from the added bonus of a potential 60% energy saving.
Outcome:
- Download a PDF of this success story 1.4 MB, PDF
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