An environmental systems company dealing with iron oxide powder are using Aerator Pads from AKO UK to aid with the flow of powder out of a hopper.
Flow Aids for Stubborn Powders
Handling of raw clay and other raw materials often gives rise to nuisance or even hazardous levels of dust. Systems to remove the dust must be equipped with reliable dust collectors able to handle moderate and at times very heavy dust concentrations.
Aerator Pads used within this application – AC710B
Blue general purpose Silicon cone shaped pad rated to 200 degrees C. Complete with carbon steel stud, washer and hex nut.
The company wanted to extract dust from a hopper by means of a vacuum truck which will generate a suction at the hopper outlet (300 mm dia) of around 5 psi. The suction generated by the truck was sufficient to operate the Airbrator pads.
The hopper is filled to a depth of 2 to 3m, with iron oxide powder at ambient temperature.
Reducing Downtime with Aerators
A small part certainly makes a big difference – Aerator pads have proven their worth within this dust collecting & bag dump application, by keeping the bulk dry material moving.
Powdered substances can start to become clogged in areas inside hoppers, which are problems known as rat-holing or bridging. Ultimately, both issues cause the material to either form an archway above the opening of a hopper, or a tunnelled hole – both are not ideal for efficient production and can cause unwelcome downtime, similar to this particular application.
The environmental systems company have confirmed that their use of the aerator pads has considerably reduced downtime on site and freed up time for workmen to continue with other important jobs rather than trying to loosen the iron oxide powder inside the hopper themselves by banging and scraping the hopper walls. The aerators now take care of this job without any fuss.