The Primary purpose of thickening is to increase the concentration large quantity of suspended solids in the feed stream. It’s function’s very similar to that of clarifier but process result is different. Thickening process involves higher torques than clarificulator. Hence gearbox, and mechanism are of heavy duty.

The basic concept of thickener is it of a tank, means for introducing the feed with minimum turbulence, a drive actuated rake mechanism for moving settled solids to discharge point, a means for removing thickened solids, and a means for removing clarified liquid.

Bridge supported centrally driven thickeners are common up to 15 m dia side given figure shows a typical unit. The drive consist of a worm gear normally mounted on precision bearings and driven through one or more gear reduction by a motor. A vertical driving shaft is attached to the main gear. Normally two long and two short arms are attached to centre shaft. The long arms have sufficient blades to scrape the bottom twice per revolution. Short arms are provided to rake the inner area for times per revolution and balance mechanism. Cone scrapers are bolted to the centre shaft to prevent plugging of bottom discharge cone.

Applications

• Steel Industry
Blast Furnace, Electric Arc Furnace, BOF, etc

• Fertilizer Industry
Phosphate Rock Dryers & Calciners, Dryers

• Non-Ferrous
Copper Reverberatory Furnace, Laea Blast Furnace

• Pulp & Paper
Lime Kilns, Back Liquor Recovery, Bark Boilers

• Sugar Industry
Boiler Flue Gas, Bagging Section

• Mineral Products
Asphalt Stone Dryers, Cement Kilns

• Pharmaceuticals
Tablet Coating Fans, etc