Gravitation auger water separator from a suspension of wet bulk material

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of water separation from a mixture of wet loose material using a worm, or auger, dewaterer, whose working element is a full auger with variable thread pitch, rotating in a fixed trough. The extrusion of water from the wet material suspension, consisting of a mixture of mineral wool tufts and granules, is effected in the auger dewaterer by entraining and compressing the wet bulk material through the threads, the varied pitch of the conical screw, and the rotation of the auger.The thread faces and thread edges of an improperly designed screw of the auger dewaterer by Advanced Metal Powders s.r.o. showed notable wear from the applied pressure of the packed wet bulk material (passing through the threads of the different pitch of the conical auger). Finding the cause of the severe abrasion and preventing excessive further wear of the auger was the subject of theoretical calculations and experimental verification tests, whose main conclusions are presented in this paper. The paper gives the relations that allow calculation of the volume of bulk material in individual sections of the auger dewaterer. The calculated values from these relationships, were verified and compared with the values read from the 3D CAD system for designing SolidWorks Premium 2012 SP 5.0 models.The percentage compression values of the loose material in the threads of differential pitch of the conical auger of the unsuitably designed auger-screw dewaterer by Advanced Metal Powders s.r.o. allowed us to define recommendations that, applied, would ensure malfunction-free operation of the auger-screw dewaterer.