Design and Development of an Industrial Centrifuge for Small and Medium Scaled Industries

Abstract

A centrifuge for separating industrial mixtures was designed, developed and evaluated. The major components of the centrifuge include: an electric motor, a rigid frame, rotating wheel, three sedimentation vessels and a centrally mounted shaft. Stress analysis of the centrifuge wheel, which is the major load carrying member of the machine was done using Solidworks SimulationXpress and a factor of safety of 5.12815 was obtained for an estimated load of 331.5N. The centrifuge was designed to withstand vibration caused by the rotating masses and fabricated using locally sourced standard materials. Performance test analysis gave a specific energy consumption and optimal separation time of 206.5KJ/Kg and 30 minutes respectively. Thus, the centrifuge constitute a veritable option for production of pure and quality industrial products in small and medium scaled industries.

Keywords: Centrifuge, Stress analysis, Specific energy consumption, Optimal separation time