Case Study: More than a Five-Year Unit

Challenge

A Midwest aluminum recycling company needed a new charge feeder to load the aluminum furnace.  Their existing unit by another manufacturer could only handle light duty materials and was not holding up to the requirements of the customer, causing them to have to replace the unit approximately every five years.

Approach

The General Kinematics Heavy-duty Charge Feeder design provides the robustness needed for the demands of the recycling industry, while allowing the unit to be designed light enough to be portable to different areas of the customer’s shop.

Solution

A single motor, two-mass drive is used to discharge the scrap aluminum to the furnace in the required time. Also, the hopper and structure were designed to handle the demanding conditions of the facility.  The support structure was built with an eye on durability and portability to allow the customer to re-locate the unit within his facility to meet their needs.  Finally this Heavy-duty Charge Feeder was built with a replaceable discharge spout in the event of heat damage from the furnace, allowing for lower cost replacement of the chute versus replacing the entire machine.

BEFORE

AFTER

Results

The feeder is scheduled to ship out of our Crystal Lake shop shortly and the customer is anxious to put it in to commission as the old unit is ready for replacement.

General Kinematics 2013 USA