McLanahan Develops UltraDRY as Modular Solution to Improve Final Product Dryness
The McLanahan UltraDRY is a compact, modular, skid-mounted Dewatering Screen that can improve the final product dryness of Fine Material Screw Washer discharge.
“When you have a 15% moisture content coming from your screw discharge and you don’t want to wait days and weeks for your material to dewater properly, the UltraDRY will slide right under your existing screw washer and you have your dry material almost instantly,” Mechanical Engineer Cody Yingling said. “We can add the UltraDRY to pretty much any existing screw application and get the customer’s moisture content down to as low as 7%. We can do this with one modular package, where you don’t have to build custom structures and custom features. Everything can just drop right in and you can be running very quickly.”
Modular Design
The UltraDRY is shipped as one complete unit so that when it arrives on site, it can be picked off the trailer and put into place right under the screw washer. It can accept material from any brand of screw washer and will discharge a drip-free product directly to a stockpiling conveyor.
“This helps our customers because they don’t have to dump on a pile and then take loaders and move their material all around the site,” said Yingling.
The UltraDRY is a modular Dewatering Screen and sump on a skid-mounted base.
Optional Features
McLanahan designed the UltraDRY with several optional features to enhance the dryness and quality of the product.
Spray bars
Spray bars spanning the width of the screen provide a double wash for removing excess fine material from the product. The fines exit with the water through the screen media and into the sump underneath the screen, where they can either be sent to waste or returned to the screw via the optional pump feature.
Return water pump
“With the pump package, you can recapture a lot of the water that you’re losing through the Dewatering Screen and send it back to the screw to cut back on water requirements,” Yingling explained.
The pump returns the water and fine material back to the sand screw in two places. The primary location is the feedbox of the screw. This helps reduce the fresh water requirements needed for washing and classifying the material in the screw, ensuring a cleaner product while putting the desired sized fines in the product pile instead of the waste stream.
The pump can also be used to provide washback water to the dry deck area of the screw. This helps keep material from clogging up the sides of the screw washer, which ultimately helps create a drier product coming off the screw.
If returning water to the screw is not a priority or is not necessary, the pump can be used to send the screen underflow from the sump to the settling pond.
Horizontal vs. Inclined Orientation
Another feature of the UltraDRY that comes standard with the unit is a removable spacer block that allows the producer to change the screen from a horizontal orientation to an inclined orientation.
A removable spacer block on the UltraDRY allows the screen to change from an inclined orientation to a horizontal one.
The UltraDRY will typically run in the horizontal configuration when preceded by a Fine Material Screw Washer. Screw washers provide a level of dewatering in the range of 15-30% moisture, so the UltraDRY can be used to further reduce the moisture content of the material to as low as 7% for next-day sale.
If more retention time is necessary, McLanahan offers easy-to-install spacer blocks that can shift the UltraDRY from horizontal to inclined in the field.
“Typically, the moisture content will be such that you don’t need extra retention time and the UltraDRY can be run in a horizontal position,” Yingling said. “If you do have an application where you have more moisture content in your screw discharge than desired, then we can raise the UltraDRY in the sloped position and run material through that way.
The UltraDRY can also be used in conjunction with Hydrocyclones. Because the underflow from Hydrocyclones is more dilute than the material discharging from a screw, more retention time on the screen is necessary. This is another instance in which the UltraDRY would be operated in the sloped position. The angle allows a pool of water to form at the back of the screen, which helps to dewater the material down to the desired moisture content.
Backed by Years of Experience
The UltraDRY can be a stand-alone solution to improve the final product dryness from any brand of screw washer, or it can be combined with McLanahan’s Fine Material Screw Washer.
“The great thing about the UltraDRY is that this is the traditional McLanahan Dewatering Screen that we’ve been making for decades,” Yingling said. “We have all the history behind those, and we have the data that shows how well they work.”