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ID Fans: Fan Cleaning 2

Location: Castle Cement, Ketton Site, UK.
Product: PAS-350 Acoustic Cleaner
Principle: Primasonics International Limited (UK)

Problem: ID fan dust build up, ID fan cleaning

The FLS Type HAF 290 fan that was in use was heavily loaded with dust which was not separated in the cyclones. Due to the deposition, the vibration level, caused by the ID fan dust build up, used to increase rapidly. Automatic shutdowns due to excess vibration detected by a sensor mounted on the ID fan shaft occurred around every 3-4 weeks.

Each unplanned shutdown cost the department £30,000 per day in variable costs alone. The total procedure of the ID fan cleaning used to take about 1 to 2 days - completely stopping the production.

A Primasonics engineer visited the plant during a shutdown period to study the ID fan dust build up problem in detail and note the process parameters. The separator fan had backward rotor with 2 inlets and 1 outlet. The process parameters were as follows:

  • Temperature of material: 400º C
  • Temperature of air: 400º C
  • Moisture content of material: 5%
  • Moisture content of air: 5%
  • Fan RPM: 929
  • Fan Diameter: 2.900 m

Inlet Conditions:

  • Temperature: 400º C
  • Density: .540(kgm9³)
  • Pressure: 96078Pa

System Conditions:

  • System flow volume: 76.30 (M3s9¹)
  • System Pressure Drop: 5253 Pa

The Solution

Engineering drawings of the fan and details of the material on the impeller were sent to Primasonics for their recommendation. Based on this, Primasonics selected a Model PAS-350 Acoustic Cleaner, from their extensive range of Primasonics Cleaners, as being the best solution for this ID fan cleaning problem.

The Result

Following the installation of the Primasonics Acoustic Cleaner, there have been no further shut downs due to vibration caused by ID fan dust build up. The fan gets manually cleaned once every 6 months as part of a planned shutdown. The trial of using Acoustic Cleaners for their ID fan cleaning was declared successful and Castle Cement, Ketton site now significantly benefit from increased efficiency after reducing unplanned shutdowns in the clinker section.