Smart Elbow® Deflection Elbows: A “Clean Sweep” for Lime Conveyance Problems

January 15, 2013 by Miaja Cornelius

The ability of HammerTek’s patented Smart Elbow deflection elbows to eliminate elbow wear due to abrasive impact and friction has made a major impact on downtime at a high-volume municipal wastewater treatment facility serving the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

As the primary wastewater treatment facility for the city of Alexandria and Fairfax County, Va., the Alexandria Sanitation Authority’s sewage plant operates 24 hours a day with a volume that can exceed 80 million gallons per day. For pH control, the operation uses a half-million pounds of pelletized lime per month, conveyed from trucks to 70-foot silos via twin four-inch lines.

Initially the lines were fitted with four-inch sweep elbows. When the sweeps began leaking after about six months in service, the Authority swapped them for sweeps fitted with wear-backs.

“Then we were probably losing an elbow every nine months,” Lead Mechanic Bob Devereaux said, adding that the resulting dust and downtime was not a good thing for such a high-volume facility.

In early 1998, Devereaux received a postcard from Plant Process Manager Tom Tyler offering a free trial of the HammerTek Smart Elbow deflection elbow. The Authority began replacing sweeps in its lime lines with four-inch HammerLoy™ Smart Elbow models in April, and by June there were five Smart Elbow units in service.

Two years later Devereaux pulled a couple of the Smart Elbow units out of service and inspected them for wear. Finding none, the Authority continued replacing its old-style sweeps with Smart Elbow deflection elbows, which have consistently resisted any hint of wear. Devereaux says the switch to Smart Elbow models has more than paid for itself.

To read the full case study, please visit the HammerTek website.