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Ajax included a number of features to ensure reliable handling in this waste-to-energy process. With four 11-metre-long screws in a casing 3.6 metres wide, Ajax’s biggest multiscrew feeder truly is an impressive piece of solids handling machinery,” said Eddie McGee. The mild steel feeder will transport refuse derived fuel from a hopper as part of a waste-to-energy process. As waste can be irregularly shaped as well as poor flow, Ajax included a number of features to ensure reliable handling. Eddie commented, “The feeder’s design pays special attention to screw geometry and clearances. While over the outlet section the feeder includes relief overload flap plates should the subsequent conveyor fail to take the product away. In the event of maintenance, the feeder’s design allows one of the four screws to be removed and the machine to continue to operate at full plant rate .”

Whenever a bulk material is stored the contents are required to flow reliably and under control during both the filling and emptying processes. Few problems become apparent during filling, although some may be caused that show later. The regime of flow generated during the discharge process depends on the storage vessel construction and properties of the bulk material being handling, but essentially follows a mass or funnel flow form, depending whether the total stored contents move during discharge. The two major benefits of Mass Flow are the securement of reliable flow without arching or ‘ratholing’ and the elimination of indeterminate residence time due to static regions of storage during discharge. Other benefits are secured are that the risk of ’flushing’ is reduced and that segregation that may have occurred during filling is redressed. It is essential for mass flow that extractions takes place over the entire area of the hopper outlet. However, to secure