Meet Frank van den Hoogen, Senior Mechanical & Research Engineer
Following our strategy to broaden our scope with new applications and markets for the Eurosilo System, we extended our team with specialists dedicated to exploring new boundaries. This allows us to investigate and innovate in new directions while handling our ongoing projects in existing markets, such as coal, FDG Gypsum, potato starch or fertilizer. Time to introduce a vital team member at ESI, Senior Mechanical & Research Engineer Frank van den Hoogen.
Research & Collaboration
Frank started June last year at ESI and felt at home almost immediately because of the intensive cooperation with various colleagues for different projects. Frank: “The research work from a mechanical engineering perspective is very diverse. For every piece of equipment there are a large number of dependencies that determine the final product. In order to calculate the impact of choices and key principles, you need to interact with everyone involved. We employ many experts in different fields, from procurement and project management to sales and engineering and it all comes together in the final design.
”I don’t see impossibilities but all kinds of possibilities.”
Capturing reality
Researching mechanical solutions that can be sustained in live production environments requires as much data as possible. The more realistic the data the closer the predictions are to reality: “To be able to make valid predictions, you first need build a model that is as close to reality as possible. So, what are the material characteristics? What is the expected input and output capacity? What is an acceptable lifespan, the required level of risk mitigation, maintenance costs, TCO and so on. It’s really a wide scope, including the testing of materials. That’s’ why we have two graduates from high level technical universities who I supervise with their research assignments at ESI.
New applications, new markets
“At the moment we are researching a number of new applications that could potentially work with a Eurosilo System. This is because of current inquiries from different industries that are looking for alternatives for their conventional storage solutions. One of them being ore, which is more than twice as heavy than coal per m3, but also certain fertilizers and soybean. For each of them, I don’t see impossibilities but possibilities. The fun part for me is to overcome challenges, so I really have my work cut out for me at ESI!”
