AJAX Hopper and Sextuple Screw Feeder for Handling Very Poor Flowing, Low Density Carbon Fibre.

Ajax Carbon Fibre Handling System including Sextuple Screw Feeder for Mersen

Solids handling equipment specialist, Ajax Equipment, has supplied leading electrical power and advanced materials company, Mersen, with a carbon fibre handling system including a sextuple screw feeder for a new production line at the company’s Eurocentral, UK facility near Glasgow. In addition to the six screwed feeder, the system comprises feed hopper, collecting screw conveyer with declumping features and an inclined screw conveyor.

The six screwed feeder actively extracts poor flow carbon fibre from the large outlet of the hopper above. The integrated design of feeder and hopper means that arching and hold up of fibre is completely avoided and a positive, regulated feed is consistently achieved. The output is fed over a long width into a collecting screw which transfers the product towards the outlet. To ensure the most even of feeds to onward process the outlet section incorporates blades to comb the fibre, breaking up any tendency for the fibre to clump and hold together, through a grille.

The conveyor has outlets at each end so that the existing and a future, planned mill can be served. The conveyor has the declumping feature at each outlet, with supply controlled by which direction the auger is run in. When constructing reversible discharge screws, it is essential to ensure the flights are completely uniform otherwise the screw may compact material when running in one of the directions. The elevator features a long single span screw to avoid any potential blockages, effectively configured for pushing the poor flow fibre up the incline and minimise service needs.

Commenting, Scott Keil, manufacturing manager at Mersen, said, “After the recent success of working with Ajax to upgrade an existing line we were happy to work with them again on this new line. Commissioning with the new multi-screw system has gone exceptionally well with production totally satisfied that the Ajax feed of product to our mill is consistent and indeed superior to our original Silo set up."

"Recently Ajax has seen a trend in projects requiring very large multi-screw feeders including two identical 11m quadruple screw feeders for a waste-to-energy facility and the sextuple screw feeder for Mersen. In these projects multi-screw feeders enable active extraction from high capacity hoppers with wide outlets, ensuring consistent supply of material for the processing line. Having adopted a hopper design which has a large outlet to secure flow it is critical that the feeder extracts over the full area and Ajax feeders are very adept at this," said Eddie McGee, managing director, Ajax Equipment.

For more information on Ajax Equipment screw mixers and conditioners, call +44 (0)1204 386723 or email sales@ajax.co.uk.

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