Acoustic Cleaning - Advantages of Acoustic Cleaners

Advantages of Acoustic Cleaners

• Repetitive use during operations means that there are fewer unscheduled shut downs.
• Improved material flow by the elimination of hang-ups, blocking and bridging.
• Minimisation of cross contamination by ensuring complete emptying of the environment.
• Improved cleaning and reduction of health and safety risks.
• Increased energy efficiency. Reducing the build up on heat exchange surfaces results in lower energy usage.
• Extended plant life. Aggressive cleaning regimes are avoided.
• Ease of operation. It is easy to automate the horns either at regular intervals or to tie the sounding in to changes in their environment such as pressure or flow rates.
• Importantly they prevent the material build up problem from occurring in the first place.

These advantages mean that the financial payback is often very quick.

It is also possible to compare acoustic cleaners directly to alternative solutions.

• Air cannons. These are well established but are expensive with limited coverage thus requiring multi unit purchase. They are also noise intrusive and have a high compressed air consumption.
• Vibrators. These are easy to fit to an empty silo but can cause structural damage as well as contributing to powder compaction.
• Low friction linings. These are very quiet but are expensive to install. Also they are prone to erosion and can then contaminate the environment or product.
• Inflatable pads and liners. Again these are easy to install in an empty silo. They help side wall build up but have no impact on bridging. They are also hard to maintain and can cause compaction.
• Fluidisation through a 1 way membrane. This can help already compacted material. However they are expensive and difficult to install and maintain. They can also contribute to mechanical interlocking and bridging.