Goex Powder Explosion at Minden Facility

[John Boy]

http://www.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&cf=all&ncl=dxVkMpYiMXIIdcMNBMhmF4KqSziLM

[Ranger Sgt. Jake McCandless #3368]

Well from what I can determine from the articles at least the majority of the plant wasn't affected,thankfully no one was killed. Doesn't sound as if production will be affected much. Adios Sgt. Jake

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

Some of the reports mention that the explosion took place at the corning mill. A corning mill is where powder cake is ground down into granular form. Unless they have another corning mill, I can't see how 1000 pounds of Goex exploding will not put a crimp in production.

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

Ditto RSJM...

 

GG

[John Boy]

I'm with Driftwood.

The powder after it is pressed, usually contains ~ 8% moisture when it comes to the Corning (granulation) House. No details were provided if the powder was too dry or there was another factor that caused grains to ignite as it progressively moved through the screens.

 

Here is a description of how Goex Corns their powder:

The next step in the process is the corning mill, where granulation takes place. A first screening is done, where distribution of the granulations depends on the size of the screens used in the shaker. The black powder is then taken up in a lift and dumped into a hopper. An aluminum shaker with screens oscillates at 123 rpm. Powder that does not pass through the screens is returned to the rolls through a bucket elevator. All of the chutes contain magnets. The corning mill has many more moving parts than any other equipment in the plant. The process contains many trips to stop the process.

 

All of Goex's types of manufactured powder (same for other vendors) have to go through the corning process before it moves to the Screening or Polishing process. If the Corning machinery was damaged - no new batches of powder can be made until the unique machinery and screens are either replaced or repaired allowing normal production to continue.

[Fairshake]

I don't think that any new lots will be passing through any time soon. The information is vague as is the normal thing until the brass can decide what they want to release. They have to be very careful even though they will be flooded with State and Federal investigators. +1 on the post by Driftwood and John Boy. Hey John Boy, this will give Hodgdon another reason to keep raising the prices on Goex. I was worried when they purchased the plant and they have rasied prices and quit making several of the powders. Still waiting to see a positive move to help rather than hurt the buyers who purchase the product.

[John Boy]

Still waiting to see a positive move to help rather than hurt the buyers who purchase the product.

Fairshake, let's make a scorecard:

* 22% price increase in 2009 before the official Hodgdon contract of ownership on Jan 1, 2010

* Discontinued Cartridge - 2011

* Discontinued Express - 2011

* Introduced Reenactor for the Blue-Gray folks (2011), there are ~ 50,000 Civil War Reenactors - 'follow the money trail'

* And finally in Jan 2012 - Introduction of a "New and Improved Goex Powder"

... Could that be the 1000 lbs that didn't make it out of the Corning House?

 

Didn't take Hodgdon long to make business decisions, did it?

 

David, IMHO the only way there would be a positive move would be ... the new 2012 powder be processed with improved processes, ie. Wheel Mill and Polishing, plus charcoal made from Alder Buckthorn with 65% creosote instead of the current Swamp Maple. Then sell it for around 15 bucks a pound, lower in lot quantity

 

This might bring folks back to Goex and lower purchases of Swiss cause the Go To powder now is the 2010 lot of KIK powders - 25 or 50 lb. lot: $12.50 per lb