Vertical Stirred Mill (VSM) Welding Machine Design

Vertical stirred mills are widely used in the mining industry because they are more efficient than traditional drum mills. Vertical agitation grinders are used in secondary, regrinding, and fine grinding applications in the mining industry because of their energy efficiency, cost savings and small footprint. The solid welding of the mixer leaves to the body plays an important role in terms of wear, maintenance planning, and operating costs. The grinder must be resistant to the strains during mixing and maintain its rigidity. In vertical mixer grinders, it is difficult to weld the screw leaves to the shaft in a helical manner. In this study, a Screw Welding Machine (WSM) was designed to weld the vertical stirred grinder leaves to the body to meet this difficulty. In order to perform welds between adjacent leaves and corners, using a submerged arc welding machine, a welding bench has been designed. Designed bench enable to connect seven different sizes of vertical mixer grinders to WSM. Designed WSM compansate deformations caused bey weld induced heat by changing part position and opposite side weld application. The designed bench remains stationary during welding procedure. The weld seam qualities were investigated by examining the weld seams made with the designed machine (spectral analysis, hardness measurement, notch impact resistance, macro examination, and metallography examination).