These orders include all conveyors for the new Dieffenbacher-supplied Kronospan Bolderaja OSB mill for delivery early next year, and a chain conveyor system for Egger’s mill in Hexham and another of its mills, this time in Romania. In fact, Trasmec’s reference list reads like a listing of the world’s panel makers, including Italian companies Frati; Fantoni; Saib and and Bipan; Finsa of Spain; Kronospan in Germany, UK and Poland; Shelman in Greece; Merbok and Hume in Malaysia; P G Bison in South Africa – and so on. Trasmec has supplied more than 7,500 conveyors worldwide in the last 10 years alone. "We also gained a large contract for the biomass energy industry in France, to burn recycled wood mixed with coke," said Mr Moroni. At the company’s factory in Casalbuttano, near Cremona in northern Italy, there is a new 3,000m2 undercover warehouse facility on a 5,000m2 site adjacent to the existing 9,000m2 premises.
To understand the purpose of this new storage area, you also need to know that Mr Moroni owns 50% of a factory in Romania, in a town called Cluj-Napoca. The other 50% is owned by Dario Zoppetti, chairman of CMC Texpan, the manufacturer of forming equipment for panel lines. Known as Dimeco, this factory produces components for both CMC Texpan and Trasmec. Those components produced for Trasmec will be stored, together with those made in Italy, in the new warehouse, awaiting assembly into new conveying lines. "Assembly and quality control are entirely carried out within Trasmec," said Mr Moroni. "The target of making components at Imeco is to reduce our costs while maintaining the same high quality which our customers have come to expect." Trasmec makes a range of different conveyors for different purposes, including standard belt type, pipe belt conveyors, standard and ‘Panzer series’ chain conveyors, screw conveyors, bucket elevators, disc separators, moving floor systems, steel plate conveyors and travelling screw extractors. One of the more spectacular products to see in situ is the ‘Cobra’ pipe conveyor in which a belt is formed into a tube within the conveyor framework and this tube can then travel around corners or bends without the need for complicated joints. Long lengths can also be accommodated, even in kilometres, says the company. The name Cobra gives an idea of the snake-like curving path possible for this conveyor.
Pipe belt conveyors are equipped with an ‘air pad’ underneath to reduce friction and therefore wear on the belt. Trasmec’s range of various types of conveyors is employed in a number of situations in the panel mill and the design is adjusted to suit the particular application. Hoppers and bunkers also form part of the scope of supply. With the growth in demand for the use of recycled wood in panel production, Trasmec’s disc separators can remove oversize material which could damage the conveying system or process equipment. For the future, Mr Moroni said it is his company’s intention to continue the policy of ongoing development of the existing range of products, while making use of the Romanian facility to contain the company’s production costs.
