Qlar opens new test centre in Bangalore for pneumatic conveying

Qlar, the German bulk materials handling solutions provider, has opened a new test centre for pneumatic conveying in Bangalore.

As the first test centre in Asia with a conveyor line of 680 metres, the facility is touted to be one of the most powerful of its kind and enables realistic testing for dense-phase applications. With the facility, Qlar (formerly Schenck Process) is strengthening its position as a provider of practical test infrastructure for material handling in demanding industries like metals, cement and energy sectors.

The new centre covers an area of around 539 square metres and is designed to analyse the conveying of a wide variety of materials – from ferrous and non-ferrous metals to cement and fly ash from the energy sector. In the future, it will also be possible to examine performance materials and chemicals, the company informed. Typical parameters such as particle size distribution, bulk density, flowability, air and energy consumption, as well as required pressures and flows, are measured under realistic operating conditions.

Qlar said customers can have their materials evaluated under real-world conditions at the centre. After an initial laboratory characterisation, the materials are tested in full-scale conveying setups to assess their behaviour at different feed rates, pressures and venting conditions. Qlar then determines process‑specific conveying parameters such as required conveying pressure, air demand, conveying velocity and achievable throughput ranges. These results support companies in the reliable design of their systems and provide a clear technical basis for project planning and evaluation.

“With the new test centre, we are creating a service that provides our customers with early project security and transparency,” said Mr. Rajesh Pathak, Managing Director of Qlar India. ‘The ability to realistically simulate long conveyor distances makes the facility an important component for many industries”.

“The demand for reliable conveying data is increasing worldwide,” said Dr. Jörg Ulrich, CEO of the Qlar Group. ‘In addition to the existing test centre for material grinding, the pneumatic conveying tests offer our customers in Asia a testing environment that is unique in this form and size”.

Alongside technical development, the efficiency of conveying applications is becoming an even stronger focus: By testing different material combinations, air consumption and thus also the energy requirements of individual conveying processes can be optimised in a targeted manner.