Report on the Tumble Belt Cleaning Machines with one and two turbines.
Usually, complaints such as blasting times not being able to be reduced are often heard from those who operate tumble belt cleaning machines, specially from those whose equipment's size is big and have only one wheel for blasting .
On the other hand, when time is reduced the quality of blasting is not homogeneous. Eventhough in the center of the cargo the components are successfully blasted, those, which are set in the extremes next to the discs, are not.
The distribution in the blasting stream that is propelled by a turbine is not even, since most of the abrasive is concentrated on the center rather than in the rest of the area. This zone is known as hot point. As we move away from this point the amount of blast propelled by the turbine remarkably decreases to values near 50%. So, in order to allow the components that are set in the extremes of the cargo to obtain the same coverage as those in the central part, working times must be increased, or a selection of the parts must be made: leaving aside those which were successfully blasted and exposing to longer periods of time those which were not. This leads to a significant increase in the operative costs.
Our engineering department wants to offer a clear solution to this problem, and, in order to do so, they have made a research to determine how blast is distributed in the stream that is thrown by a turbine.
With a specially designed machine, different options for the same process were tested:
- Turbine models and diameters
- Different abrasive stream openings changing the RPM.
- Turbines with different amounts of blades and different blast positions.
With the results from this test we came to the following conclusions:
The best option to improve the rubber belt machines is to use two turbines. If both turbines have the same installed power as those machines that have only one, a better distribution of blast can be obtained.
Moreover, another positive aspect is the effect achieved by treating the parts from different impact angles, improving the uniformity of the blasting that could not be achieved with the old one-turbine model.
Every model needs the appropriate placement of the turbines to prevent the streams from crushing against each other and to achieve the best performance possible.
Some of the advantages of working with two turbine tumble belt machines are listed below:
- Blasting time reduced between 40% and 50% with similar installed power.
- Maintenance costs reduced by better exploitation of the equipment.
- Amount of blast consumption reduced by finished part.
- Electric consumption reduced by blasted part.
- Working costs reduced.
- More homogeneus quality of the parts.
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