INDUSTRIAL
A NEW
TECHNOLOGY
E. V.
FOR CERAMIC
EXPE
RIENC
E
PIPES
Petrov
Translated from Steklo i Keramika, Vol. 17, No. 10, pp. 33-34, October, 1960
In the m a j o r i t y of Russian factories producing c e r a m i c drainpipes, many operations in the production of the roils, transporting them and feeding the v e r t i c a l pipe pressures are done by hand. At the Ryazansk C e r a m i c Factory in 1959, owing to the initiative of A. I. Vekshin, a new technology was developed for the manufacture of the semifinished article, which made it possible to r e j e c t preparation of roils and in the same year to begin assembling equipment and units for the m e c h a n i z a t i o n of loading v e r t i c a l pipe presses. The problem of m e c h a n i c a l charging of a l l pipe presses in our factory is now solved. Before introducing the new technology, the production of the semifinished articles was a very labor-consuming job in the factory. The scheme of production of the semifinished a r t i c l e in our factory, as in a l l other factories in the USSR producing c e r a m i c pipes, was as follows (Fig. 1).
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Prepared in the grinding department, the batch advanced from a bunker through a feeder onto a belt transporter 2 which sent it to the mixer 3. The mixed and moistened body was passed through a pug m i l l 4. The pugged block was cut by hand into roils, which were placed by hand on a belt conveyer 5 which took them to the forming department and the vertical pipe presses I, II, III, IV. On these operations six people were occupied. Each worker had to place on the conveyer up to 40 tons of rolls per shift. In the forming department, the roils were taken from the conveyer by hand and p l a c e d on the pile 6 near the presses. This operation occupied 8 people. From the piles, as required, the rolls were loaded into the r e c e i v i n g cylinder of the pipe press. This operation was done by two workers: a loader and a carrier. This operation was the most labor consuming. A loader charged up to 50 tons in a shift.
533
Placing the rolls on the belt conveyer, stock piling and charging into the press did not allow the output of the unit to be increased. The rolls in the pipe rapidly dried out which led to a waste in the work of the presses owing to the frequent breakdowns and rapid wear of the working parts of the units. The output of each worker occupied on the production of the semifinished articles (green pipes) was 3.1 tons/shift. A total of 30 people were required for double-shift working of the four presses. The consumption of electric power for 1 ton of product was 18.7 kw-hour. The new technology for making drainpipes sharply increased the efficiency and eliminated the production of rolls, transporting and loading them into the presses. According to the new scheme (Fig. 2) the prepared batch advances from bunker i by transporter 2 to the elevator 3 which fills bunker 4 located in the forming department.
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Fig. 2. From the bunker through the feeder 5 the batch goes m the double-roller mixer 6 in which the body is mixed and moistened. Then it goes to single-roller feeders 7 which uniformly charge the pipe presses I, II, III, IV. The uniformity of loading and disintegration of the body going to the presses increased the output of the presses by almost 1.5 times and doubled the inter-repair periods. If the operations described above formerly needed 30 people, then with the new technology the production of pipes required only 8 people for servicing 4 presses-2 operators and 6 assistants (molders). All manual operations are now done mechanically. The assistant, by means of light signals, controls the whole process of producing the semifinished articles, starting from the grinding department and finishing with the output of the pipe from the press. The efficiency under these conditions increased by g.8 times and the output of one worker increased to 12 tons/shift. Consumption of electric power per ton of product was reduced from 18.7 to 10.3 kw-hour. The total annual saving from the introduction of the new technology comprises about 790,000 rubles. The construction of nonstandard equipment and fitting of auxiIiary aggregates was done by the factory staff. The new method of producing ceramic drainpipe allows the separate processes to be completely mechanized and partly automated, which is being done at present in the factory.
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