Spiroflow Systems Inc. has shipped a 30-ft-tall vertical mobile aero-mechanical conveyor (AMC), the tallest custom mobile unit ever manufactured by the company, to RATH Refractories Inc. in Milledgeville, GA.
     
The AMC is in the process of being installed at where it will operate between a hammer mill and process hoppers used in manufacturing high-quality refractory shapes for special applications such as insulation firebrick for lining high-temperature kilns. 
     
RATH Refractories is a wholly owned subsidiary of RATH AG of Vienna, Austria that has been manufacturing corundum bricks, high-temperature installation firebrick, and andalusite high-alumina bricks and others for over 100 years.
     
At the plant, the conveyor will be installed 75 to 80º to the vertical and receive off-spec green bricks crushed in a hammer mill. From there, the crushed brick material will be elevated by the conveyor and conveyed back into the process hoppers to be re-struck. Material will be transported at a speed of up to 125 ft/sec. The conveyor is designed to operate 24/7.
     
According to Mathias Lee, Vice President of Sales for Spiroflow Systems Inc., it was important to the customer that the mixture of various ingredients be homogenous throughout its process.
     
“The Spiroflow aero-mechanical conveyor was the only conveyer tested that was able to maintain and actually improve the consistency of mixtures,” Lee said. “Testing took place at Spiroflow’s in-house test facility in Monroe, NC, which analyzes and demonstrates material flow properties under actual operating conditions.”

Frequently referred to as a “rope and disk conveyor,” aero-mechanical conveyors are ideal for transporting material at any angle, including vertically at heights from 10 to 85 ft, without any loss in capacity at throughputs of up to 120 tn/hr. 

Benefits of an AMC include low energy requirements, dust-free transport, minimal product degradation, virtually no separation of mixtures, and total batch transfer. The conveyor can be set up as a straight-line operation or in a variety of around the corner configurations.
     
Aero-mechanical conveyors consist of several evenly placed polyurethane discs attached to a wire rope. The rope and disks travel in a continuous loop and move at a high speed within parallel steel tubes. At each end, there are enclosed housings with the rope assembly running from one tube to another around specially designed sprockets. One of these sprockets drives the rope and disks while the other sprocket provides tension to the rope. The action of the rope assembly traveling at high speed produces an air stream that fluidizes and conveys product in the airflow until it is centrifugally ejected at the outlet.

For more information, visit www.spiroflowsystems.com.