A secure data destruction operator engaged Mobile Automation to automate a second hammer-mill line end to end — an approximately $117k turnkey package covering mechanical design and fabrication, electrical and controls.
Conveyor sized before any steel was cut
Space around the mill fixed the infeed geometry, so design started with numbers.
- Greatest conveyor height the space allowed, and the resulting angle of inclination, set first
- Drive and driven rollers modelled — shafts, outer shells and inner rings — with take-up units, guides and the enclosure body
- Roller diameters sized from the bearing calculations
- Shaft locking units selected so shaft and roller turn as one
Fabrication that anticipated the install
The machine was built to be moved, lifted and maintained on site.
- Main frame cut, welded and bolted to the conveyor chassis, on a mobile trolley with castors
- Take-up units assembled with their bearings and a counterbore turned in the gearbox mounting plate
- Drive shaft machined with key and circlip to suit the gearbox
- Parts powder-coated and rebuilt, lifting tines drilled to suit the site forklift
- Floor-mounted isolator post keeping the main switch enclosure clear of machine vibration
Keeping the fines where extraction can reach them
Dust control was designed around the mill and proven by test.
- Vacuum manifold and adapter rolled and welded, with fabricated diverters
- Infeed aperture closed off with brush seals
- Discharge hopper sized to the machine and isolated on rubber mounts
- Pneumatic vibrator on a stand-off bracket for the discharge hopper, chosen to dissipate heat
- Three-phase electric vibrator on the stainless steel delivery chute
The results
- Control cabinet built out with GPO, fan and light tower, labelled and point-to-point tested against as-built drawings
- Quick-disconnect multipole plugs and a glanded termination box splitting the machine for transport
- Mill motor driven by a Rexroth VSD on EMC cable and tuned on site
- Existing PLC and HMI programs converted into a project configured for the new hardware
- Three E-stops, rotation and automatic extraction verified at commissioning
- Start and stop simplified on operator feedback before handover