Re-Engineering of Minor Ingredients Charging System

Winners’ Innovations

Condition BEFORE Innovation

RBF (Raw material, Batch plant, Furnace operation) Department is in-charge in transforming raw materials into quality molten glass. One of its key processes is the batch is the batch preparation. This is a homogeneous mixture of major raw materials (Silica Sand, Feldspar, Limestone, Soda, Ash, and Cullet) and minor raw materials (Carbon, Iron oxide, Saltcake). These raw materials are formulated and weighed at the right amount in order to achieve the allowable glass quality. Due to the physical property of the iron oxide, one of the minor raw materials (minor ingredients or M.I.) a revision on its charging system was done. Prior to the innovation or fabrication of the new minor ingredients charging system, RBF Department were experiencing problems on the discharging of the minor ingredients using screw feeder. This was due to the clogging of the pre-mixed iron oxide on the feeder. Delay on discharging this minor raw material will result to longer batch plant operation time or worst, a production downtime.

Change/Intervention Done

To eliminate the problem of delayed discharging of minor ingredients (M.I.), following solutions were made:

Replacement of the screw feeder into an in-house fabricated vibratory feeder

Redesign of the minor ingredients (M.I.) silo

Compatibility test of in-house vibratory from the current M.I. feeder control system

The in-house fabricated vibratory feeder came from scrap materials: Scrap mild steel plates, scraper bars, bolts, angle bars, and old unbalanced motors

The minor ingredients silo was redesigned to prevent contamination and reduce moisture accumulation on the pre-mixed minor ingredients. Materials used were from the available used materials from batch plant area (e.g. mild steel plates, black iron pipes, scrap unbalanced motors).

Condition AFTER Innovation

THE OEM screw feeder for premix was replaced by an in-house fabricated vibratory feeder. This was done on both pan and rotary mixer side hence saving the company to procure 2 new OEM feeders from Germany. With this project, the delay or failure on the discharging of pre-mixed minor ingredients was eliminated. In addition, the minor ingredients silos were covered and can be easily operated manually using pulleys. This prevented contamination of the minor raw materials and eliminated hazard in opening/closing the silo covers.