Background
Cataler, a manufacturer of catalytic converters for the automotive industry, first approached Anderson Engineering to manufacture 3 x Slurry Stock Tanks in the year 2010. In January 2017 they contacted Anderson Engineering as they required an additional 4 as as per this existing design. A year later, in 2018, they required an additional 2 x 2500L slurry vessels.
The slurry stock tanks are used in the manufacture of a slurry that is used to coat the inner honeycomb mesh of a catalytic converter. This allows conventional petrol internal combustion engines to reduce their emissions of Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides and Hydrocarbons which are considered dangerous to the environment.
The 2017 project
Anderson Engineering was tasked to manufacture 4 Slurry Stock tanks, with 1 of them being 2000L in capacity versus 2500L.
The vessels were according to the following specification
- 2000L(3 off) and 2500L(1 off) capacity
- 304L Stainless Steel vessels with Carbon Steel painted frames
- Flameproof Anchor Mixing system
- Plain Jacket with an internal pressure of 120kPa
- Valves, Pipework and Pneumatics
The manufacture of the previous vessels were based on a Japanese design. The previous work done to translate Japanese drawings into conventional Anderson Engineering shop drawings allowed us to efficiently get the drawings into our system. The challenge however, was the previous 3D model not being able to be converted to modern formats. A re-print of previously issued shop drawings was done to reduce drawing time. The client also requested that one of the 4 vessels be 2500L in Capacity. This added to the complications of using drawing re-prints as particular attention to detail was paid to ensure dimensional adherence.
In addition, the internals of the Anchor Mixing system of the vessel differ to our conventional design as the mixer is used for the mixing of an industrial product with non-hygienic requirements. Due to the abrasive nature of the product, the internal mixing components on the initial 3 vessels were coated in PTFE. This was found to wear quickly and it was decided that the new vessels would not utilize this coating.
Some issues were experienced on site where a mild steel circlip was used instead of a stainless unit. This resulted in some mixing issues and our team was therefore sent to rectify them accordingly. The visual appearance of a stainless and mild steel circlip are very similar and this was not picked up by our team.
The 2018 project
The 2500L supplied in 2017, allowed them to address several capacity issues and thus became the new standard going forward. Cataler then requested Anderson to supply an additional 2 x 2500L slurry Vessels in January 2018.
The initial 4 vessels took 10 weeks to manufacture and the second 2 vessels took 8 weeks. The vessels were not installed and commissioned by the Anderson team. The client transported, rigged and installed their own vessels. All the vessels were tested in full at the Anderson Engineering premises prior to client acceptance and signed off. All manufacturing was according to specification.
