One of the leading brick makers in North America contacted Olds Elevator LLC about developing a solution to a chronic production problem common throughout their brick plants.

“Olds Elevator designed and built an elevator that also served as a Heat Exchanger to cool the LAS immediately upon entering the elevator. This is achieved by using a hollow-shafted static screw and circulating cooling water through the screw.”

Sand is commonly applied to the surface of brick clay before firing in the kiln to provide color and texture. Typically, a conveyor carries extruded clay down a line where sand is applied to the top and 2 sides before cutting into individual bricks for firing in a kiln. In order to ensure complete sand coverage excess sand is applied and much of the sand is recycled. Numerous automated systems from bucket elevators to pneumatic systems had been tried with limited success. Some of their plants resorted to manual sand application to ensure quality.

Olds elevator designed a static screw elevator system that delivers new sand to the brick line and recovers and recycles 100% of overspill sand. A large chute extends under the brick conveyor and collects all overspill and delivers the sand back to the feed hopper. New sand can be added from the overspill chute or the opposite side of the feed hopper.

The customer has indicated that the new system by Olds Elevator LLC reduces sand handling labor by over 90%.