As a custom equipment manufacturer, we have quite a bit of flexibility in what we can offer.  Sometimes a screening application calls for requirements that a standard vibratory screener just cannot accommodate.

Recently, a customer asked us to redesign his powder metal screening operation in order to provide additional headroom for an additional piece of equipment. His application requirements were a vacuum, two-deck screening, and ultrasonics on both screen decks PLUS he wanted to increase production. He currently was also re-screening his “good” cut of the powder metal material through a secondary sifter to remove a high percentage of “overs”.

While the customer had limited floor space he had plenty of space above his current sieve equipment which was on the floor. The customer’s screening experience was also limited to your standard single drive (positioned under the screening chamber) and he was very comfortable with this design. When I first proposed our Dual Drive, Low Profile Vibratory screener he was skeptical of the design and the overall performance so we invited him to our facility for some on-site product testing.

The Dual Drive, Low Profile Screener incorporates two vibratory rotary electric drives positioned on opposing exterior sidewalls. This design allows for a standard “side” discharge of the oversize materials (either in a single or double deck set up) but the “fines” have a vertical discharge or “straight-through” directly under the inlet. I personally like this equipment design for a couple of reasons; one, faster throughput, and two, much less maintenance than standard type screeners – no greasing, no belts. The Dual Drive screener is also very flexible in how it can be installed. The screener can be placed on a portable stand and wheeled around, mounted on cables, and suspended or placed inline between two other pieces of process equipment such as a bag dump station.

Now, back to my customer’s requirements…

Since my customer’s product was fairly dense, the Dual Drive Screener was also a good choice.  It can remove overs from the screen deck very quickly and the ultrasonics we incorporated on each deck greatly enhance the sieving process. The ultrasonics also allowed us to eliminate the need to re-screen, or “clean up,” his “good product” coming off the screener with the secondary sifter. The Dual drive screener was installed under the customer’s stainless totes (which were raised to accommodate the screener) and the powder metal fines were collected directly underneath the screener.

When the project was finished we had increased the customers flow through rates, raised his yields of “good product”, freed up some floor space and streamlined his operation, and reduced screening costs and overall cost of equipment operation.

If you have a unique challenge where you need to fit a new screen process, contact us.

Jeff Hochadel

Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.