An insulation manufacturing company are using vibrating aerator pads to aid with the flow of silica in a silo.
The silica media is room temperature, and is sucked through the silo via negative pressure. The aerators are fitted on the inside of this particular silo, in three rows and roughly 500mm apart. One of the outlets of an aerator can be seen on the bottom right exterior of the silo below, with the blue pipe which would be attached to an air feed.
This silo performs 80 cycles per day. 3 bar air pressure is fed to the aerators, which causes them to vibrate and encourage the media inside the silo to empty.
The insulation manufacturing company have been using aerators to assist with this application for 6 months so far. They decided to use aerator pads after undertaking some research on the internet. They had previously used air pads but needed the vibration, hence why they have installed the aerator/airbrator pads.
The engineer on site told us at AKO UK that the aerator pads are proving robust enough for the job, and that they plan on a large expansion with much larger silos, so there will be further potential for the installation of more aerator pads in the future.
Rubber aerator pads supplied by AKO UK come in either blue silicon for all purpose general applications including animal feed, aggregate & minerals, construction products, chemicals etc, or white neoprene for food and pharmaceutical applications.
Each aerator comes with a fitted carbon steel or stainless steel air line housing screw, nut and washer, enabling them to be easily fitted into holes into vessels such as a hopper or silo with minimum fuss.
Blue general purpose Silicon cone shaped pad rated to 200 degrees C. Complete with carbon steel stud, washer and hex nut.
Aerator pad flow aids are also known as fluidisers, or vibrating mushrooms. Enabling powders and granular material to flow quickly and eficiently is important for many industries as it prevents issues such as rat-holing, bridging and compacting. Aerator pads are a small part, but a huge helping factor for avoiding these issues.
Having to clear bloackages manually is labour intensive for maintenance operators, and in some cases a build up of material may mean having to enter confined spaces. Aerator pads are proven to prevent these unnecessary problems, and will only improve the performance of silo/hopper discharging.
