United Kingdom-based Middleton Engineering has been awarded a contract by St. Helier Municipal Services in Jersey, U.K., to design and install an in-floor conveyor system designed to optimise and improve infeed materials handling at its expanding baling operation on the island.
St Helier is responsible for kerbside collections and residential recycling for one-third of Jersey’s population plus card and packaging waste from 70% of the island’s commercial properties. The material is all sorted, baled and transported off island to consuming destinations. A growing population, currently around 100,000 and with rising tourist numbers, contributes to the material flow.
The new chain conveyor will incorporate a two-metre in-floor section, rising at an angle of 30 degrees in a swan neck configuration. Middleton Engineering says it will provide an important upgrade to the St. Helier facility, making it both easier and faster to load an existing SCAPA ME 80 horizontal baler supplied by Middleton in 2014.
As part of St Helier’s materials recycling line, the new conveyor is designed to feed material at up to 3 tonnes per hour (or 24 tonnes per day), providing a consistent material feed to load the baler correctly and improve throughput. The in-floor section will significantly improve loading and at the same time reduce the level of manual handling, according to Middleton. The process will also contribute to the production of consistent bales of waste material, in terms of weight and size, to further optimise containerised transportation and storage.
Under the contract, Middleton Engineering is responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of the conveyor, including the pit for the in-floor section of the conveyor. Ease of access for scheduled cleaning and maintenance were important design considerations in order to allow debris to be removed and preventive maintenance to be carried out at required weekly intervals to limit service interruption.
With an overall length of 11.5 metres, the conveyor incorporates a fully adjustable safety rope pull system over the conveyor with dual channel reset switches at each end. Other features include an automatic chain lubricator, an energy-efficient motor with soft start to minimise wear, and speed controls to optimise flow rates.
“Optimising our recycling capacity and throughput for commercial and residential waste is crucial, and this latest upgrade from Middleton Engineering will both simplify and speed up how we load the baler,” says Piers Tharme, facilities and resources manager at St. Helier Municipal Services. “This in turn will help with throughput, increasing efficiency at the depot, and improve the overall consistency of the process.”
Adds Mark Smith, engineering director for Middleton Engineering, “We’ve gained a reputation for supplying high quality waste baling and conveying equipment to island communities, including St. Helier Municipal Services on Jersey, as well as operators in Guernsey [and] Malta.”
Middleton Engineering designs, manufactures, supplies and install a range of recycling machinery, including balers, shredders, conveyors, separators and complete MRF installations.