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Method For Autonomous Sampling of Various Materials

Method For Autonomous Sampling of Various Materials

Method For Autonomous Sampling of Various Materials

(OP)
Hi All,

I've been looking through the forums for quite a while now for any relevant info on my problem and this seemed like the most appropriate place to post. I'm presently doing a workterm at a smelting facility that receives many various "custom feeds", these feeds need to be sampled in order for the lab to analyze how valuable they are. The feeds come in bulk bags and range from sandy material, to clay-like material, to fine powdery material. The present system uses a vertical screw contained in a pipe to transport the material up (4.5ft) into sample bags. There are three primary problems with this system:
1) Not all materials are able to be sampled, the finer material flows back down the screw and the stickier material gets stuck, plugging the screw.
2)The sample size is far too large, presently about 260 cubic inches is collected for each bag and the desired size is approximately 50 cubic inches.
3)This is strictly my opinion, i.e. it is a problem but the other people that I have spoken with seem to have resigned themselves to this. By using an auger, the sample is not representative as it is disturbed, which seems like a big deal to me.
The next big thing is that the material can be hazardous, so the sampler has to be as autonomous as possible. Presently, the vertical screw unit is attached to a loader that moves the unit vertically in and out of the bulk bag while a hydraulic motor drives the screw. This serves the autonomous requirement well as all the operator is required to do is change the sample bag when it is full.
I realize that this is a rather extensive problem, so I'm not looking for an entire solution, I just felt that by posting the entire problem it may help make contributing advice easier. Anyhow, any advice or resources that anyone has pertaining to the problem would be greatly appreciated, and let me know if I can provide some additional info. Thanks in advice for any help!

RE: Method For Autonomous Sampling of Various Materials

I don't suppose that you could "outsource" the problem to the various material sources by having them send material in a standard container of the requisite volumetric capacity?

50 cubic inches is about 1 liter/quart. Make sure that the container can be emptied if the material is sticky. A doubled ziploc bag (or similar) would seem to do the trick - controls how much material can get into it and would be reasonably easy to empty.

Otherwise, a long-handled ladle coated with an inert or non-reactive material might do the job.

Let your imagination run with this one.

Jeff

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