Case Study: Revolutionizing Sieving of Tobacco Leaves for the Biggest Tobacco Producer in India

Overview

India is the leading country when it comes to tobacco production in the world. In India, some of the finest leaves are produced for domestic as well as international markets. Sieving tobacco leaves for proper sizing with quality is an important step. However, this sieving setup was the cause of severe inefficiencies and operational challenges faced by the country’s largest tobacco producer. This company was seeking reliable and efficient solutions, so they looked to Galaxy Sivtek for breakthrough technology.

Challenges Customer Was Facing

The company employed a conventional sieving machine operating on a vibration principle. While serviceable, the system presented several persistent issues:

1. Material Handling: The bulk density of tobacco leaves is very low and when we grade this material with vibro separator which generates vertical vibrations so due to its low bulk density it starts jumping on the mesh uncontrollably and material starts moving outwards and not sieved properly. Because these small particles were frequently blended with oversize materials, reprocessing of the material was oftentimes required.
2. Higher Cost: To mitigate the jumping issue, the company significantly lowered the feed rate. This resulted in reduced throughput and required larger diameter machines, increasing operational costs without guaranteeing optimal efficiency.
3. Dust Issue: As machines vibrate, tobacco dust is generated during the process and spreads across the workspace, leading to an unsafe environment for its workers.
4. Mesh Tearing: To grade or sieve such low bulk density material high vibration is required which tore the mesh often, the whole thing leading to increased the operational time and maintenance cost.

Solution

To overcome these issue we introduced Sivtek Tumbler Screen, this advanced machine runs on elliptical motion which is ideal for sieving low bulk density materials like tobacco leaves. With the Sivtek Tumbler Screen customer solved the issues are:

• Gentle Material Handling: Sivtek tumbler sieve the material with tumbling motion not with vibration so its eliminates vertical vibrations. Because of this the material moved gently and stays longer time on screen.
• Higher Throughput: Because of the tumbling motion material’s screen time is increased and it sieves properly in smaller machine compared to older machines. It increases throughput with efficiency.
• Dustless Process: Now in the absence of vibration the generation of tobacco dust is minimized which create a safe environment for the operators.
• Decreased Maintenance Cost:  The gentle tumbling action works like charm and decreased the wear and tear of mesh, it increases the lifespan of mesh and decreases the maintenance costs.

Conclusion

The Sivtek Tumbler Screen solve all kinds of sieving and grading issues of India’s largest tobacco producer. With the help of our machine our customers achieved accurate separation, steady performance and it reduced the need of reprocess the material. The cost is the main factor and helps companies do the downtime and the money by minimizing the remeshing, and the high throughput of over 95% of the effectiveness, and no need for reprocessing the materials, also eliminates dust which give the safe surrounding for the workers and the operators.

Galaxy Sivtek’s custom solution boosted efficiency, increased productivity, and improved product quality. It set a higher standard for reliable tobacco leaf sieving and strengthened the company’s position as a leader in the industry.