Results: Tea and coffee merchants, Taylors of Harrogate, recruited Vortex Valves to assist in improving a tea transfer system at its North Yorkshire, UK plant.

In order to reduce costs and energy consumption, four Vortex Quantum Wye Line Diverters were installed in the system, thus enabling a reduction in pipe work and the number of vacuum pumps required for each line.

The Vortex UK office was contacted by Taylors, who had identified the Wye Line Diverter from the Vortex website as a potential alternative for its tea transfer system. Taylors was then visited by Vortex representatives just 90 minutes after this initial enquiry.

At the plant, the blended tea was transferred to each packaging machine by a dedicated vacuum system. The project was to combine these two systems into one, reducing the number of vacuum pumps and quantity of pipe work whilst not affecting the quality, taste or structure of the tea in any way.

Following the decision that two-way Wye Line Diverters offered the best solution, Taylors was able to test a set of four diverters on a trial basis for several weeks. At the end of this period, Taylors confirmed that the diverters were performing to expectation and placed a further order for eight more Wye Line Diverters. Taylors added “Dry leaf tea is a very abrasive material and we certainly valued the trial service that Vortex provided so that we could evaluate them in use with our product. They also fitted the valves with abrasion resistant liners to help us get around the potential problem.”

By using 2-Way Wye Line Diverters in pairing together new manufacturing and packaging lines, Taylors have already reduced power consumption and noise in the production hall by eliminating three 4.3kW electric motors.

Due to Taylors’ continuing growth in the UK tea market, plans are in place to install more systems over the next two to three years, using Vortex valves.