In my last blog post I wrote about vacuuming alumina dust in an aluminum manufacturing plant in South America. In that application we were returning spilled alumina to the original hopper so that processing could continue.
This same customer has an additional application to vacuum spilled material, but the new need is to assist mobile spill recovery vehicles (shown above) in vacuuming spills of varying volume. These mobile vehicles are effective for most of the spillage demands they can access, but there are times where additional vacuum is needed, such as when the spill location is beyond the hose length of the system. In those scenarios additional vacuum hose can be added, but line losses render the performance too low to produce real results. With this in mind, the end user looked for a point-of-use vacuum boosting solution, and thought about again using an EXAIR Line Vac.
Considering the potential use of a Line Vac, we approached this in the same way as any other pneumatic conveying application, gathering the required information to allow a proper model number selection. As with the previous application we confirmed the following:
- Bulk density of the material
- Size of the material
- Conveyance height
- Conveyance distance
- Required conveyance rate
- Available compressed air supply
The spills in this facility are comprised of alumina dust with a bulk density of 1.1g/cm³ (68.7 pounds/ft³). From the floor to the maximum height of the vehicle is a distance of 3.25m (~11ft), and conveying distances were in a range of 3-10 meters (10-30 feet). The customer had no required conveyance rate, only a requirement to boost vacuuming capacity when needed.
With this information confirmed we were able to make a model number recommendation, the 2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac model 150200. Adding the 150200 Heavy Duty Line Vac to this mobile spill recovery unit brings additional vacuum flow and conveyance of the alumina through a high velocity airstream, making mobile spill recovery efforts more effective.
If you’re in need of a pneumatic conveying solution, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer (1-800-903-9247). We’ll be happy to help.
Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE