Royal Mosa

“Royal Mosa was the first customer I visited as a brand-new employee of the ltd. trading company ‘Limburg’, the predecessor of Limburg Filter”, says Frank Kruip. “On April 5, 1992, a Monday morning, my father and I had an appointment about the delivery of filter cloths to Mosa, at the Meerssenerweg in Maastricht. Together with John Allerton, representative of filter cloth supplier GH Heath Ltd. from Stoke-on-Trent (UK).”

Mosa was looking for new fabrics for the ceramic glaze waste and kaolin filter presses when Frank first entered the company. Kaolin is a pure, white clay that is used, among other things, for making porcelain. There is a special filter cloth for filtering the clay paste to the desired malleability. A different type is used for dewatering glaze sludge. Frank: “The filter cloths proposed by John were also used by famous companies such as Wedgwood and Royal Doulton”.

At that time Frank didn’t know anything about filter cloths and filter presses. In his first working week, he cruises through the Netherlands with John Allerton to visit new customers. John tells him everything about filter cloths and their application. After that week it is clear to Frank that the application of filter cloths is extremely versatile. Not only in the ceramic industry, which the family business has had as a customer since 1952, but also with other types of companies.

Ever since that April 5^th morning, he has continued to faithfully provide Royal Mosa with filter cloths and, later, filter plates. Further down the line, Limburg Filter also improved the operation of one of the filter presses, part of a so-called process of ‘rectification’. “Mosa had bought an installation from a company specialised in surface grinding tiles. In this ‘rectification’, grinding wheels are cooled with water. The cut forms a slurry with very fine baked clay particles”, Frank explains.

Mosa wanted to recover this particle and the water separately, because they are both valuable raw materials. The relatively dry clay can be returned to the mass the company uses to make new tiles. And the water flows back to the rectifying machine. However, the water purification installation supplied by the rectifying machine supplier contains a filter press that is not resistant to the abrasive slurry. The baked clay particles are a good abrasive and the filter cloths are broken down in no time. In addition, the filter cake is so wet that it doesn’t fall off the cloths.

The installation causes so many malfunctions that Mosa eventually asks Limburg Filter to solve the problem. Frank: “The solution lay in a filter cloth that is more resistant to abrasive particles. In addition, we proposed a Leaktite filter plate, which enables the filter cake to be dried highly efficiently. This makes it easier for it to fall off the filter cloth and, therefore, it is easier to mix with the clay mass. In addition, we made sure to adjust the PLC control of the filter press. This way, all new functions work fully automatically”.

Royal Mosa is more than satisfied with the modifications and the service that Limburg Filter offers. “I enjoy working with Limburg Filter”, says Martijn Meulendijks, Production Manager Sorting & Dispatching at Royal Mosa’s Floortile Factory. “A pure collaboration with clear solutions.”