Center drive thickener

• Product Overview

The central drive thickener is a solid-liquid separation device designed and manufactured by our company for sludge or material concentration. Primarily used in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, mining, metallurgy, and chemical industries, this equipment is designed to perform preliminary thickening of high-moisture suspensions (such as excess sludge and mineral slurries) to reduce their volume, thereby creating favorable conditions for subsequent processing steps like dewatering and drying.

The equipment adopts a central drive mechanism, utilizing a slowly rotating sludge scraping mechanism to facilitate the settling and aggregation of solid particles, while assisting in the collection and discharge of concentrated material. Its structural design emphasizes operational stability and continuity.

• Structure and Working Principle

1. Core structural composition

The device is composed of the following parts:

• The thickener tank is usually cylindrical in shape, with a conical bottom for mud collection.
• The central drive unit, located at the center of the tank, consists of a motor, a reducer, and an overload protection mechanism, providing power for the entire sludge scraping system.
• Transmission vertical shaft and scraper arm system: The central vertical shaft driven by the drive mechanism is connected to scraper arms and scrapers at its lower end. The scraper arms are typically symmetrically arranged truss structures, while the scrapers are used to slowly scrape the concentrated material from the pool bottom towards the central sludge collection hopper.
• Work bridge or platform: Provides access and space for equipment installation and maintenance.
• Electrical control system: can realize the start and stop of equipment, the monitoring of the running state.

2. Working Principle

After the suspension enters the thickener, the solid particles begin to settle naturally under the influence of gravity. The central drive unit, once activated, drives the scraper arm system to rotate continuously at a low speed (typically several minutes per revolution).

• Settling process: The slow rotation helps to form a stable settling environment, avoid the violent disturbance of the settled solid layer, and facilitate the aggregation and compaction of fine particles.
• The sludge collection process: The scraper mounted on the scraper arm gently scrapes the settled and gradually concentrated material along the inclined bottom of the tank to the central sludge collection hopper, then discharges it through the sludge discharge pipe or pump.
• Overflow process: The separated supernatant flows out from the annular overflow weir at the top of the tank.
• Core technical features

1. Compact structure with centralized layout: The core components of drive and transmission are concentrated at the center of the pool, resulting in a well-organized overall structure.
2. The operation is stable: the center transmission mode has stable operation track, and the disturbance of the flow state in the pool is small, which is helpful to the sedimentation and concentration of the solid matter.
3. The operation management is relatively simple: with a high degree of automation, it can be set to intermittent or continuous operation mode as needed, and the daily maintenance points are relatively centralized.
4. The system has a certain range of material adaptability: by adjusting operating parameters (such as rotational speed and sludge discharge frequency), it can process suspensions of various properties.

• Main technical parameters

• Main Application Fields

This device is applicable to the following scenarios requiring pre-concentration of suspensions:

• Municipal sewage treatment: gravity concentration of residual activated sludge.
• Industrial wastewater treatment: preliminary concentration of sludge from papermaking, food, and chemical industries.
• Mining and metallurgy: Concentration and pre-dewatering preparation of concentrate or tailings pulp.
• Other fields: solid-liquid separation and concentration processes for similar materials.