The grains that annoy Ulrich Frechenhäuser are tiny. They are almost invisible to the naked eye. The largest samples have an average diameter of just 1.2 millimetres. Typically, though, they are just a fraction of a millimetre thick. STO AG, located in Kriftel near Frankfurt am Main, uses quartz sand to produce adhesives for thermal insulation.
This raw material is small yet powerful: the grains of sand burrow into the tiniest cracks bringing gigantic machines to a creaking halt and constantly grinding down kilometre-long transport pipes until a hole appears. "Every two or three months, something somewhere starts to leak," says Frechenhäuser, who is in charge of the site. He relies on MOBOTIX IP video technology to keep his production processes constantly flowing. And with success, because "we produced 55,000 metric tons this year without any interruptions in our one-shift operations. We’re very proud of that."
