The new SORG Preheater is designed to eliminate the problem of clumping of the batch materials and the resultant blockage of the unit. After four months of continuous dust-free operation, the SORG Batch Preheater will undergo offline inspection to enable the company to examine the equipment in detail for possible wear patterns and make minor improvements.
Clumping of the batch materials and the resultant blockage of the unit are the main problems encountered by conventional batch preheaters. The new SORG Preheater is designed to eliminate this problem.
Clumping is caused by water set free by the soda ash and the SORG Preheater design allows that water to escape from the unit through an open surface at the entry. Dust and water vapour are removed from a collecting chamber above the free surface by an extractor fan.
Experience has shown that there can be some residual solidification around the heating pipes and this is destroyed by vibrating these pipes at intervals.
A full-sized version of the critical drying module has been built and tested under typical operating conditions and has been found to work satisfactorily with 100% batch. After four months of continuous dust-free operation, the SORG Batch Preheater will now undergo a planned inspection. The Preheater shown in the photo has preheated approximately 30,000 tons of batch. The entire batch for this furnace was fed through this unit.
This offline inspection will allow the company to examine the equipment in detail for possible wear patterns and make minor improvements.
After the unit goes back into operation, SORG we publish the results of the inspection.