A rare earth materials company in Hefei, Anhui, faced stringent challenges in the material conveying process during the production of rare earth powders with good properties. Rare earth powders are chemically highly reactive and easily react with oxygen and moisture in the air under normal conditions, leading to oxidation and deterioration of the product, which affects the performance of the final magnetic or luminescent materials. The company originally used an open-end manual transfer method, which not only caused severe environmental dust pollution but also caused large fluctuations in product purity, making it difficult to maintain a stable yield rate. To this end, the company sought a sealed conveying system that could completely isolate air throughout the process to support product quality and production continuity.

Customer challenges

The client's core pain points focus on three aspects:
1. Oxidation risk: When rare earth powder comes into contact with air, an oxide layer rapidly forms on the surface, leading to a decline in material performance and failing to meet professional application requirements;
2. Yield loss: Traditional conveying processes cause dust to escape and material sticking to walls, resulting in actual yields of only about 85% of theoretical values, causing serious resource waste;
3. Environment and Safety: Rare earth powders have fine particle size and easily generate dust, which not only pollutes workshop air but also poses dust explosion hazards, putting pressure on compliant production for enterprises.

Solution

To address these pain points, Head Powder customized a nitrogen-protected sealed pneumatic conveying system for the project. The system uses high-purity nitrogen as the transport medium and protective atmosphere. From material storage, transportation, metering to final feeding, the entire process is completed within a sealed pipeline, ensuring that rare earth powders remain in an inert gas environment. Pneumatic conveying parameters are calculated with relatively accurate accuracy, which not only improves conveying efficiency but also prevents material crushing and pipeline wear. The entire system uses PLC automatic control to monitor nitrogen pressure, flow rate, and oxygen content in the pipeline in real time. When oxygen levels exceed set thresholds, it automatically alarms and replenishes nitrogen, enabling unattended normal operation.

System advantages

1. Zero oxidation support: Nitrogen protection throughout, oxygen content can be controlled below 10ppm, eliminating oxidation reactions;
2. High yield: The pipeline is designed with a sealed design combined with a high-efficiency separator, achieving a material collection rate of over 99.5%, reducing waste;
3. Clean production: The system emits dust-free energy, meets environmental protection requirements, and improves the workshop working environment;
4. Energy saving and consumption reduction: Pneumatic conveying power is optimized and matched, reducing energy consumption by about 20% compared to traditional equipment, and nitrogen consumption can be further reduced through recycling solutions.

Currently, this nitrogen protection and transportation project has been operating normally at the customer's site in Hefei for over half a year, with a product qualification rate exceeding 99%, annual material cost savings and environmental protection expenses totaling over one million yuan, earning high recognition from customers. Head Powder will continue to provide green and intelligent sealed conveying solutions for industries such as rare earths, fine chemicals, and specialized powder metallurgy.