Fuyao Glass selects Mixer Systems' batch equipment

American mixer manufacturer Mixer Systems has supplied a batch mixer to Chinese float glass maker Fuyao Glass at its Mt. Zion, Illinois plant location.

Mixer Systems supplied its first mixer to the site in 2018 to replace an older mixer from the 1970s; the mixer was costly to maintain and difficult to get service parts to keep it running.

Both new mixers are custom designed and were built in its Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA plant location and supplied to Fuyao for a May 2020 installation.

The Mixer Systems mixers now supply batch for the two separate furnaces with a total capacity of 1,200 tonnes per day in clear float glass production.

The mixers were retrofitted to Fuyao’s existing weigh batching plant and required few additional design changes to the current batch house and control.

Fuyao Glass utilised the Mixer Systems Low Profile Turbin mixer model due to its high efficiency, simple design and service support.

The mixer retrofit presented a challenge in physically getting it into the existing stack-up type batch house room.

The mixer could not simply be fabricated, shipped and installed into the batch room due to the horizontal clearance between the existing I-beams.

Working with Fuyao engineers, Mixer Systems fabricated a custom designed, three-piece tank that can be disassembled and then re assembled once it was inside the building.

This design allowed the mixer to be lifted into place in the batch house and then reassembled in its original form.

The upgrade also included putting the mixers on load cells which provides Fuyao with an additional check scale in their float glass production process and ensures a proper flow of mixed batch into the furnace for melting.