Customized De-scaling Robots Improving Workers' Health and Safety, Increasing Alumina Production Capacity

摘要

It is a fact that alumina production capacity decreases as residue and scale builds in production vessels, whether it be on a digester's shell or a thickener's wall. Nevertheless, de-scaling operations often delay or limit operations because of the necessary downtime required to perform this maintenance operation. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the many advantages of de-scaling a reservoir, such as a bauxite digester or red mud thickener, with a remotely controlled de-scaling robot, rather than by installing scaffolding and having workers manually remove the scale with jackhammers. Through real-life case studies in Alcan's plants, we will establish that a de-scaling robot dramatically improves the workers' working conditions, greatly reduces the downtime required to perform this critical operation, and also improves production capacity. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that the Alcan/Mecfor de-scaling robot is highly adaptable to a variety of reservoir configurations and sizes, and is designed to work with many de-scaling methods.