WAM's Small Share in a Big Project
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Ghent, Belgium
Promotion
From the website of Vestergaard we learn that “LifeStraw water filters convert contaminated water into clean, safe drinking water. The easy-to-use filters are a vital tool for some of the 780 million people who don’t have ready access to safe drinking water. This leaves them at risk for diarrheal disease, which kills more than 1.5 million people every year. (...) LifeStraw water filters comply with US Environmental Protection (EPA) 1987 Guide Standard and Protocol for Testing Microbiological Water Purifiers. Each product in the LifeStraw portfolio is designed for a specific situation where safe water is needed but not readily available. LifeStraw is an award-winning point-of-use portable water filter that transforms microbiologically contaminated water into safe, clean drinking water. It’s ideal for a variety of users outside of the home, from hikers and campers to people displaced by natural disasters.
In 2011 WAM Belgium supplied equipment to Elmech Services, a system integrator from Opglabeek, for the production of synthetic fibres that are used as membrane filters in water treatment systems such as the LifeStraw. At Vestergaard’s ASI, in the Belgian town of Lommel, raw materials are mixed to create molasses and lumen which are the basic components for the production of membrane filters. The powdery ingredients have to be fed with high accuracy from a storage hopper into the mixer along with the liquid components. This is ensured by a series of stainless steel TX tubular screw feeders and MBF micro-batch feeders by WAM. The mixture is subsequently transformed in an extrusion process into hollow fibres and then cooled in a water tank.
After this process the fibres are wrapped and placed in a tube for further post-treatment and drying. Finally the fibres are cut to measure and packaged.