Paper and Pulp
Stirring without shaking
Dyes and pigments have a very important role in the paper production industry, even for the production of white paper or cardboard dyes are necessary. One of our customers who is producing these dyes, uses a number of large vertically installed mixers. The high rotational speeds necessary for the right mixture, in combination with long unsupported shafts between the drive and the mixer blades, makes a correct shaft balance to a critical part of the maintenance program.
Balancing and monitoring
Since more then a decade now Van Geffen VMS provides the balancing of these mixer shafts. Besides the balancing we also conduct vibration surveys every three months. With these surveys we monitor the wear and imbalance from the driving unit, the shafts and the wearing mixer blades.
During manufacturing, before the shafts are mounted in the mixers, the stainless steel shafts are accurately balanced in our workshop. However due to further tooling and the mounting of the mixer blades new imbalance is created. This new imbalance is then eliminated with a field-balancing performed in the mixer tanks itself.
Besides the imbalance, the arrangements are by design very sensible to any looseness, fitting or assembling problems. On top of all that, the abrasive mixture in the tanks causes the mixer blades to wear quickly. Any uneven wear or new mounted mixer blades can again create new small imbalances.
The periodic vibration monitoring surveys detects these problems in an early stage, enabling corrective actions to be performed before any increased wear or damage to the machinery occurs.