ABSTRACT
Cable manufacturing company is using upward die casting machine to produce 8mm diameter copper wires. Copper sheets are melted in induction furnace. Copper melting temperature is 1089°C. In order to avoid oxidization and stop heat dissipation of copper liquid, a layer of wood charcoal is floating on top of the copper liquid while burning in molten copper chamber. Normally wood charcoal burnt out within three to four hours due to high temperature. Then burnt out charcoal has to be removed from the molten copper chamber and new charcoal has to be added. While removing ash from molten copper bath using stainless steel shovel some amount of copper come out with the whole mixture. The copper particles which come out with the ash mixture do not have regular shape and around 25% (by weight) of copper consist of the whole mixture. There is an ash wastage mixture (around 4000kg) currently without a proper solution.
Objective of the study was to find a solution to separate copper from the existing ash wastage. Various separation methods were analyzed and finally sieving method with a vibrating unit was designed and fabricated to solve the problem. Cam was used to generate vibration to the sieves. Main challenge was dust generation. To overcome dust generation, dust extraction unit was designed. At the fabrication process reusable material was used. Therefore overall fabrication cost was reduced. Sieving cage angle can be adjusted using square thread bar. However the machine would be helpful for efficient copper recovering process.
