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Vibra Screw Featured in Waste Water Digest

Forth Worth upgrades feed, mix systems for hydrated lime

New feed and mix systems ensure consistent flow of hydrated lime at Fort Worth water treatment plants.

In less than 150 years, Fort Worth has grown from a population of approximately 500 to nearly 1 million. To serve people in its North Central Texas metropolitan area, the city of Fort Worth has a total treatment capacity of 497 million gallons per day for drinking water and 166 million gallons per day for wastewater.

The city of Fort Worth carries the designation of Superior Public Water System by meeting the requirements of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. This designation recognizes not only the quality of Fort Worth’s drinking water, which meets U.S. EPA requirements, but the city’s exceedance of minimum standards related to treatment, pumping and storage capacity. This helps enable the area’s quality of life and protects human health and the environment.

The challenge

Maintaining such a large and high-quality water system in Fort Worth requires constant monitoring and upkeep of its physical facilities, appearance, and operation, which are regularly inspected and evaluated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

With more than 3,336 miles of pipe in the water distribution system and 3,266 miles in the collection system, plus tons of machinery to enable the systems’ around the clock operations, maintenance is a never-ending challenge. But it is a challenge that Forth Worth meets successfully and continually.

Among the requirements at Fort Worth’s Rolling Hills water treatment plant, one of three operated by the city of Fort Worth, is the feeding of a steady and regulated quantity of lime into the water supply.

With the potential to affect downstream aspects of the water treatment system, lime feeding is the kind of operation that gets noticed if it goes awry. It is important, therefore, that volumetric feeders used in the Rolling Hills plant function smoothly and dependably, without interrupting the mixing of lime and its downstream flow required for consistent pH control.

The solution

In 2020, Fort Worth’s Rolling Hillswater treatment plant installed new equipment for its lime feeding system to replace an existing feeder.

The newly-installed equipment was a Vibra Screw system that consisted of a VersiFeeder volumetric screw feeder with a mix tank, mixer and plumbing connections to replace another brand of feeder.

The skid-mounted Vibra Screw system provided the performance and dependability needed to ensure a consistent flow of hydrated lime downstream. So, in 2022, the Rolling Hills plant installed a second Vibra Screw system to replace another existing feeder. This system featured a VersiFeeder volumetric screw feeder, mix tank, mixer, and plumbing connections. Later that same year, the plant purchased a third feed and mix system from Vibra Screw.

Lime from a silo in the Rolling Hills water treatment plant is fed into the 1.5 cubic feet feed hopper of the Vibra Screw VersiFeeder. The integrated trough vibrator in the VersiFeeder system conditions the lime to a constant bulk density and assures a highly accurate flow — plus/minus 2% — into the system’s 150-gallon polyethylene mix tank. Mixing inside the tank is accomplished with a 3.3-inch impeller driven by a 1/2-horsepower motor. An AC controller supplied by Vibra Screw with a variable frequency motor assures smooth operation of the system.

These feed and mix systems provide Fort Worth the convenience of an engineered, preassembled, skid-mounted package — but the systems are also providing additional advantages at Rolling Hills. Because of the consistency of their day-in-day-out operation, the lime feed rate of the system was lowered with ease.

In fact, the plant reduced the augur size of the third VersiFeeder screw feeder from 4 inches to 3 inches in diameter because of their performance levels. The corrosion resistant paint of the units also withstands washing with muriatic acid several times per week.

“The Vibra Screw units are built well and have many excellent features,” said Plant Manager Joseph Tolson. “I would recommend the VersiFeeder units for use in lime mixing systems as well as other applications.”

Posted on April 3, 2023

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Vibra Screw Expands Sanitary Weigh Belt Feeder Line – Article from Powder and Bulk Solids

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New Vibra Screw Press Release in BULK INSIDE
Vibra Screw Heavy Duty Screw Feeders are extremely versatile. One unit can precisely meter many different materials with little or no adjustment. When necessary, adjustments can be made quickly and easily. Screws and tubes can also be changed on some models for a wider range of feed rates.

All feeders are fabricated of high strength steel and contain only a few moving components. They are built to operate continuously with only a minimum of maintenance.

Unique Operation
Because maximum feed accuracy is dependent upon positive material flow from storage, we designed these Heavy-Duty Screw Feeders for use beneath bulk storage hoppers. Hoppers that pack or bridge should be equipped with a Vibra Screw Bin Activator to ensure consistent material flow to the feeder.

In operation, the feeder trough, screw and tube are subjected to continuous controlled vibration. This permits the material to move gently from the upper section of the trough to the feed screw without bridging, packing or flooding. Vibration further conditions the material to a constant bulk density and ensures that each flight or pitch of the screw is filled to its maximum in the filling area and completely emptied at the discharge end. The positive displacement of material is further ensured through the use of a rotating solid flight screw.

Rugged construction to operate 24 hours a day, Vibra Screw’s line of volumetric Heavy Duty Feeders will meter even the most difficult materials in an extremely reliable manner.
A patented controlled vibration principle ensures exceptional accuracy of ± 1%, minute-to-minute. A wide variety of products, from long fibers to micron-sized particles, and materials with bulk densities ranging from 2 to 200 lb/ft3 can be successfully handled with precision.

Available is screw sizes from 2” to 16” with feed rates from 2.3 to 9,800 ft3/hr.

As with all Vibra Screw equipment, the Heavy-Duty Screw Feeder is unconditionally guaranteed to perform in the service for which it is sold. With a staff of experienced and talented engineers, technicians and crafts people, Vibra Screw manufacturers high quality equipment to store, discharge, meter, convey, size and blend solid materials. The company’s comprehensive product range includes Bin Dischargers, Bulk Bag Unloaders and Fillers, Volumetric and Gravimetric continuous and batch feeders, Vibration Conveyors, Vibrating Screeners, Blenders, Process Controls and Turnkey systems.
For more information please visit Bulk Inside Press Release

Every Vibra Screw product gets a serial number tag before shipping. Most importantly each piece of equipment gets another tag printed on the original equipment proposal sent to our customer. This tag is our PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE that covers the life of the equipment. No other industry source stands behind its products with the confidence and assurance of Vibra Screw, because no other company engineers and manufactures to our uncompromising standards. Vibra Screw Warranty

What’s getting ready to ship.
Vibra Screw custom Loss-In-Weight Batching system consisting of a Bulk Bag Unloader and two batch feeders. The customer manufactures EV batteries and needed a way to accurately batch one of their main battery ingredients. Material comes in bulk bags, is transferred from the bags to the weigh feeders via pneumatic conveying system, and than into the LIW gravimetric batch feeders where the material is fed into “V” blenders with minor ingredients.

63 year old Vibra Screw Live Bin gets first replacement spare parts

During a recent conversation with one of our Massachusetts customers who was looking to add several new Vibra Screw feeders to their production line, they also inquired about parts for an old Vibra Screw bin.

They sent photos of the bin and it turned out it was one of several Live Bins that were manufactured in Vibra Screws original Clifton, NJ building in 1958. The bins have been used for 63 years and we were able to provide necessary replacement parts (special vibration isolators). These bins are still using the old style gyrator (single shaft motor driving eccentric weights) without replacing parts. Built to Last, nice return on their investment.

SEED PROCESSOR PURCHASES THIRD CONTINUOUS LOSS-IN-WEIGHT SYSTEM

This equipment is getting ready to ship after final testing and inspection. The customer is a custom seed coater and blender, and this is their third order from Vibra Screw in two years having purchased 8 large continuous Loss-In-Wight Feeders and two continuous blenders. This new order comprised of 3 Loss-In-Weight Feeders and two different size Vibra Blenders.

OMYA lnc., Florence, Vermont Major manufacturer of calcium carbonate used mainly in the plactics, paint, and paper industries as a filler, extender and coating.

The Verpol plant of OMYA Inc. is the, most modern plant of its kind in the world. It processes
both crushed and finely ground calcium carbonate through its completely computerized operation.
Bulk densities of the materials range from 25 to 70 Ibs. per cu. ft. To meet process and excess
storage requirements, the company has 27 bins ranging from 8 ft. to 26 ft. in diameter, of both concrete and steel construction. The bins are filled either pneumatically or by belt conveyor. Some of the bins are discharged through rotary valves to belt feeders or pan feeders, and some to bagging machines filling 50 lb. bags. Discharge rate varies from 4 tons per hour up to 40, depending on the stage of the process. However, calcium carbonate, especially the finely ground product, can be difficult to discharge from storage because it tends to bridge and clog.

27 Vibra Screw Bin Activators of 3 different diameters (4 ft., 6 ft., and -12 ft.), carbon steel construction, most of which have an epoxy coated interior.

To assure reliable flow of material in its computerized operation, where such reliability is critical, the company decided to install Vibra Screw Bin Activators under all its storage bins. This was possible because the Bin Activators work equally well on both concrete and steel bins. Flexibly mounted to the bottom of the bin, the Bin Activator, but not the bin, is subjected to controlled vibration. An integral baffle located just above the discharge outlet directs vibrations high up into the bin, keeping the material free flowing. An important factor in the handling of calcium carbonate, this action rids the material of entrained air, conditioning it to a uniform bulk density, which helps speed conveying and bagging operations.

OMYA Inc. relies on its Bin Activators to help it produce an uninterrupted flow of high quality product In the words of a company official, “It would be difficult to operate the plant without our Bin Activators.”

Vibra Screw Bin Activators, Built To Survive

We were recently contact by a long time customer who is in the process of replacing five storage silos at their plant. These silos were erected in 1981 and they included (5) 10 ft diameter Vibra Screw Bin Activators.
The bins are in pretty bad shape due to 39 years of exposure to the elements. Our customer, thinking that if the bins were in tough shape, that the Bin Activators would also be on the same condition. So they were planning to replace everything is the system.

We visited the site and checked the metal thickness of each Bin Activator body and collection cone for wear using Ultrasonic Wall Thickness Gauge. No wear was found to exist after all these years. The customer has not replaced any parts of the Bin Activators in 39 years. Not going to replace the Bin Activators and we have a happy customer.

Built to Survive

Vibra Screw Feeder used in separation technique for removing gold and silver from the mining solution.

The Merrill–Crowe Process is a separation technique for removing gold and silver from the solution obtained by the cyanide leaching of precious metal ores. This process is currently used at the 10 largest gold producing mines in the free world. As part of the process, zinc dust is added in small amounts but due to the variation in gold to silver ore ratio the amount of zinc need fluctuates and needs to be precisely fed to maintain steady state process.

Zinc dust has a bulk density at 220 lbs/ft3, with a particle size of 2-9 micron. The feed rates are low between 8 to 35 kg/hr. The material will settle out, de-aerate and become a non-free flowing powder. Over the years Vibra Screw has developed a Loss-In-Weight feeding system which incorporates its vibrated Versi Feeder which uses controlled vibration to assure consistent flow of material from the hopper through the feed screw and into process. The Live Bottom Bin above the feeder stores a shift worth of material and discharges the material to the feeder when the control system requires. Vibra Screw has been providing feeders for over 40 years to gold extraction processes.

Forth Worth upgrades feed, mix systems for hydrated lime

The challenge

The solution

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Vibra Screw Featured in Waste Water Digest

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