Smart Elbow® Deflection Elbow Saves Tens of Thousands in Daily Shutdown Costs

Montgomery County’s North Incinerator plant outside Dayton, Ohio, uses finely powdered limestone in its three incinerator units to bring sulfur dioxide emissions (a by-product of combustion) in line with EPA air pollution standards.

Each day, approximately 18,000 pounds of the highly abrasive, dusty material are conveyed through the facility using long-radius stainless steel sweep elbows. Long considered the industry standard, these conventional sweep elbows are critical components in any conveying system. Failures at these crucial points can be costly, messy affairs that negatively impact productivity. The powdered limestone was quite literally wearing the sweep elbows away from the inside out.

Moving such a high volume of material non-stop requires high pressure. If even a small leak develops in a sweep elbow (and they occurred frequently), the result would be a huge cloud of dust as the powdered limestone spewed out under pressure. A breach required immediate shutdown of the lines for repair and cleanup — and the clock started ticking: EPA regulations require a complete (and expensive) incinerator shutdown if the line shutdown lasts more than a few hours.

You can read the full case study here.

Plant manager Dave Martin had resigned himself to the inevitable sweep elbow failures, line shutdowns and even the occasional plant shutdown. His expenses related to a complete shutdown ran $40,000 per day, but there didn’t seem to be a way to avoid the cycle – until Martin saw Hammertek’s Smart Elbow deflection elbow at a trade show.

He was particularly intrigued by the way the Smart Elbow model conveys material through its interior. The structural design and shape creates a rotating ball of suspended material that helps redirect the entire product without friction, impact or wear. Smart Elbow products are also easier to install, requiring much less physical space than long-radius sweep elbows.

Years later, that first Smart Elbow deflection elbow installed by Martin remains in service and shows virtually zero wear, despite the high-pressure and high-volume conveying environment. Additional Smart Elbow units are now installed in the plant’s higher capacity lime injection and fly ash handling systems as well.

To find out how HammerTek Smart Elbow deflection elbows can save your company expensive repairs and downtime while increasing efficiency and productivity, visit at HammerTek.com.