Costs scaled down
September 1st 2005

Tackling limescale with a Kal-Guard+ scale inhibitor from Watermatic has helped Imperial Tobacco reduce maintenance costs and downtime, while maintaining high levels of quality control.

Scale build up on the spray nozzles of a rehydrating unit at the Nottingham plant used to take about 3h to remove manually and resulted in downtime. Scaling also changed the spray pattern of the nozzles, making descaling essential to maintain quality control.

Kal-Guard+ is a scale inhibitor based on Watermatic’s zinc anode electrolytic design and incorporating electronic controls to match the levels of zinc to the hardness of the water. Tests at Cranfield University confirmed that it reduces limescale on heating surfaces by up to 80%.

Imperial Tobacco says that, with the unit installed, there is only an occasional slight residue of limescale that is easily wiped away during routine cleaning.

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