Blog / ​Salt Lake City, USA
26 AUGUST 2022
A new two-piece D&I can making plant located in Salt Lake City has been built to keep up with the demand for aluminium cans in the US. integratedAIR Systems was commissioned to design and install the scrap, dust, oil mist extraction and prefabricated fabricated skid systems to help the plant run more efficiently. integratedAIR Systems have supplied the first line system with future extraction of line two to be installed at a later date.
The air system collects the trimmed aluminium scrap from 8 trimmers and 1 cupper. The material is conveyed to the front-end scrap separator sized for future extraction of line two. Material feeds into a baler via a weigh hopper system, including a by-pass to the floor. This air system is connected to the whole can scrap separator feeding to the floor drop chute or in future to another baler. This system is designed so that the scrap can go to the floor or to the future baler, should the first baler break down. This system will run continuously while the plant is operating.
The other air system collects whole can scrap from around the plant. There is three whole can scrap telescopic pick up points and two sweep ups on this system. This system will only run when required, stopping automatically when it is not needed. This air system has also been designed so further extraction can be added.
The fans, air separators and weigh hoppers are all arranged on top of a mezzanine platform that we designed and supplied; the baling presses is positioned on the floor underneath. The exhaust air from both conveying systems is filtered and recycled back into the building to prevent any oil and dust emissions to the atmosphere and heat loss from the building during the colder periods.
Fumes are collected from either 8 bodymakers in the 4-stage oil mist unit; a screen plate section, coalescer section, droplet separator section and carbon filter section. The exhaust air is put back into the production area or to atmosphere via a stack by others.
The screen plate section at the front of the unit removes the majority of liquid entering it. The incoming air is deflected off the screen plate towards the down steam coalescer section whilst liquid and large droplets drain through the screen and are trapped in the dead area underneath it from where they are drained from the unit
.The coalescer section traps larger droplets in the air stream, which run down the face into the sump below. The remaining droplets in the airstream are combined into larger droplets as they pass through the main mass of the coalescer and then onto the droplet separator section arranged behind it. The airflow is subjected to a succession of sharp turns in the droplet separator section, which throws the remaining oil particles out onto the surfaces of the vanes, where they become trapped in vertical drainage channels leading down to the sump below.
The carbon filter section is the final barrier resisting the passage of any droplets of oil through the unit. It also removes odour from the air steam allowing the air to be recycled back into the production area.
The unit has an automatic water wash-down system with spray bars arranged in front of the coalescer section. This operates periodically once a day to clean the build-up of oil film and aluminium particles from the surfaces inside the unit. An inline oil separator has also been installed horizontally within the ducting, helping to remove a vast amount of carryover.
A fully fabricated and tested hot water pump skid will be designed and supplied, that can simply be offloaded and positioned for the process pipework to be connected into and satisfy the flow requirements. A pressure-controlled by-pass valve will ensure that the flow will always be maintained.
The client is very happy with the outcome and have ordered the second line to be installed later on this year.
