VACUUM DISK FILTER: FAILURE STUDY AND SEARCH FOR IMPROVEMENTS USING A SYSTEMATIC DESIGNING APPROACH
Norberto Martins1; José Rubens Gonçalves Carneiro1; Pedro Américo Almeida Magalhâes Júnior1; Paulo Venuto dos Reis Neto1; Daniel Aquino Jóia1; Gilmar Cordeiro Silva1; Yargo Teixeira Gomes de Melo1
1 Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais
doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2015-0159
Resumo
During the process of ore processing, the use of water is fundamental to the execution of some steps; a pulp is created among the mixture of elements. In order to withdraw the humidity of the ore after its processing filters are used. Lately, in order to treat iron ores, the mining industries are using, mainly, vacuum disk filters, due to their low implantation cost and large are of filtering for installation space. A large number of failures on the sustaining rods of the filtering disks are happening. The goal of this article is to study this failure using design methodology for industrial products and finite elements analysis. During the filtering cycle the sustaining rods are subject of alternating loads. Based on the method of calculating floating stresses, it was noted that the failure happens due to fatigue. In order to improve the fatigue strength limit and eliminate systematic failures a new design for the sustaining rod was developed with the objective of augmenting the number of life cycles and guarantying a larger productivity and lowering the maintenance breaks on the equipment.
Palavras-chave: Ore processing industry; Fatigue; Failure study; Vacuum disk filter; Finite element analysis