SBIR-STTR Award

In the mining industry, dewatering, screening, and size separations may not be the most energy intensive processes, but they are often the major bottleneck in the whole system.. Improvements would provide tremendous potential in both energy savings and production yield. This project will develop Intelligently Vibrating Dewatering Machinery with miniaturized, ceramic-based, smart motors. The technology will combine state-of-the-art smart materials, the concept of single- or multi-stage resonators, and a recently patented energy management technique to control energy flow. In Phase I, a variety of PZT/PMN (lead zirconate titanate/lead magnesium niobate) actuator/sensor sets will be investigated for use in a full scale prototype of an Intelligently Vibrating Dewatering Machine. PZT-based motors will be designed, fabricated, and packaged. A full scale prototype will be fabricated and evaluated under controlled-laboratory conditions. Commercial Applications and Others Benefits as described by the awardee: The technology should have application in the processing industries for dewatering, physical separation or screening, compacting, mixing, and transport. Benefits include energy savings (up to 75%), improved performance (5-to-10% improved throughput), reductions in maintenance cost (50% or more), improvements in worker health and safety (up to 15 dBA reduction in noise level), and waste reduction (from lubrication, bearings, and other spare parts for rotating machinery)

Physical separation technologies use a tremendous amount of energy in the processing industries. In particular, vibrating machines are used for dewatering, screening, sizing, mixing, compacting, and conveying. Although vibrating machines are not the single most energy intensive step in a processing plant, they are often a major bottleneck in the process, and improvements would offer tremendous potential for both energy savings and production enhancements. Additionally, in processing plants, vibrating machines are among the most costly in maintenance and worker health and safety. This project will develop technology to significantly reduce energy usage and maintenance costs in vibration-based physical separation systems, while noticeably improving efficiency, effectiveness, capacity, and worker health and safety. The approach is based on the use of miniaturized intelligent engines, which use an advanced sensory system to continuously monitor the process and make appropriate adjustments to improve production. Phase I developed a full scale, single-panel laboratory prototype with one-fourth of the full load capacity. The total power consumption for the manually-controlled prototype was measured to be less than 40 W for operation above idle - 82% less power consumption than conventional systems. Phase II will design and fabricate a full-scale multiple panel prototype with 100% load capacity. In order to provide full automation, self monitoring, and self adjustment, an advanced controller software will be developed and integrated into the system. The prototype will be tested and evaluated under both dry and wet conditions in the field.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The new vibration machines should provide significant energy savings (50 to 75%) compared to conventional machines. Other benefits would include enhanced throughput (10%), reduction in maintenance cost (50%), and immeasurable improvement in worker health and safety. Target markets includeprocessing industries such as mining, sand and gravel, oil/gas, food, biomass, aggregates, agricultural, and pharmaceutical. The mining industry alone uses approximately 33 billion kW-hr per year of electrical energy (costing $1.65 billion at $0.05 per kW-hr) for physical separations