Wolfram

Mission

The Wolfram company extracts the metal tungsten from mining and, above all, from recycled material. The metal tungsten is as heavy as gold, as hard as diamond and far more heat-resistant than iron. It is used as a flywheel mass, counterweight or vibration damping in aviation, the automotive industry and telecommunications technology, as well as in medical technology.

At the Wolfram company, the challenge at the furnaces in which tungsten is heated was to extract the excess tungsten powder when the furnaces were opened. This requires more than 40 extraction points. Due to the high mass of the tungsten powder, the wear behavior and the long pipe length, this posed an additional challenge for the central vacuum system.

Solution

The installed central vacuum system consists of several pipe lines in order to be able to reach all 40 extraction points. Due to the high mass, the extraction system was designed in such a way that there is a constantly high air speed in the pipe system for the transport of heavy material.

The tubing system consists of wear-resistant NBR pipe bends and branch pipes developed by Dustcontrol.

In addition, the central vacuum system, whose central unit is located inside the hall, is equipped with special explosion protection and a spark detection and extinguishing system.

Another advantage of the Dustcontrol extraction system at Wolfram is that the extracted tungsten powder is collected in a container and can be returned to the production process. As a result, the valuable material is not lost by being recycled.

The DC Green system developed by Dustcontrol ensures that valuable energy is saved when operating the central vacuum system. It adjusts the energy requirement via an intelligent controller according to the respective air volume requirement, depending on how many suction points are open at the same time.