GEA Process Engineering Ltd – evaporators for dryer project

When Fonterra commissioned GEA Process Engineering to design, build and install the world’s largest dairy spray dryer, GEA wasted no time calling NDA. The Darfield plant can process 30 tonnes of whole milk powder an hour, and NDA were contracted to manufacture the vessels needed for the evaporation.

A number of vessels had to be made, including five 60-tonne calandrias. Each calandria contained more than 30,500 metres of evaporator tube. This added up to more than 1900 individual tubes – each of which were precisely fitted into the vessel and welded to the tube plates at each end, before being polished and tested.

With this dryer complete, Darfield can process 2.2 million litres of milk every day, enabling New Zealand milk to be shipped to markets all over the world.

SPX Flow Technology Ltd – Cheddar Master

Not for the first time, NDA fabricated this machinery in Te Rapa, Hamilton, and shipped it across the Tasman.

Fonterra Stanhope, north of Melbourne, produces specialty cheeses for the Australian market. It was time to upgrade their cheesemaking machine, and so after a design process undertaken by SPX Flow Technologies, the Cheddar Master was manufactured by NDA. In our Te Rapa workshop, we fabricated all the pieces and fully assembled the machine, before dismantling it and shipping it to Australia in three sections.

A team of NDA tradesmen followed the machine over, meeting it on-site to decommission the old cheese machine and assemble and install the new Cheddar Master.

Stanhope can process 1.2 million litres of milk per day – which becomes more than 50,000 tonnes of cheese each year.

GE Water & Process Technologies – Evaporators and Brine Concentrators

Following Queensland Gas Corporation’s A$1 billion investment in facilities for treating water produced as a by-product of generating LNG from coal seam gas, GE Water & Process Technologies were swiftly in touch with NDA Engineering.

NDA were contracted to mechanically design and build three 100-tonne evaporators – an integral piece of equipment for the new water treatment plant. Designed and manufactured to AS1210 Class 2A, the evaporators were made from duplex and super duplex stainless steel.

Each evaporator – measuring more than 30m long and 5m at the largest diameter – was fabricated and assembled in NDA’s workshop before being loaded and transported to Queensland. On-site, they were insulated and clad before being erected.