Sugar beet processing
The Problem
One of the operations during the processing of sugar beet involved assaying the quality of the beet. This process requires washing the beet with high pressure water jets in several washers before slicing and weighing. Typical noise levels at the loading stations were 96dB with hopper impacts elsewhere generating levels as high as 107dB.
The Solution
- The sources of the continuous noise were the water jets impinging on both the beet and the rotating cage in each washer, radiated through both washer inlet and outlets as the beet passed through.
- Any modifications had to fit within a very limited space and be both rugged and waterproof.
- Low cost modifications were developed that involved product operated doors and flaps.
- These were tested in conjunction with the operators to ensure that normal procedures were not affected and were then retro-fitted to all washers.
- A rugged high performance damping treatment was fitted to the hoppers to reduce impact noise.
The Results
The result was a reduction in noise of 7dB. Impact noise was reduced by 15dB.
Sugar beet washer noise reduction graph
The Costs
All modifications were retro-fitted in-house during a shut-down at very low cost.
Information supplied by
British Sugar Plc. & Industrial Noise and Vibration Centre Ltd.