Cyclonic Glass Media Separation System

During the 2006 school year, the senior design group WTM Engineering constructed a wood texturizing machine for RBM Lumber Company of Columbia Falls Montana. However, this machine was rendered inoperable due to the glass media recovery system not functioning as intended. Therefore, a cyclonic separation system was designed to replace the current recovery system at RBM. The separation system is required to effectively remove usable glass media from an airstream for reprocessing, while allowing wood particle waste to stay entrained in the flow for disposal. The existing wood texturing machine necessitates a separation system operating at volumetric flow rates up to 600 cubic feet per minute, with approximately 20 pounds of glass media and wood dust entering the flow each minute. The new cyclonic separation system was designed to withstand long hours of operation with minimal maintenance, and abides by all worker safety standards. A scale model of the cyclonic separator was fabricated to test the separator design. This model operates at 93 cubic feet per minute, separating 3.3 pounds of solid material each minute. Operation of the scale cyclone was analyzed to optimize the full scale design for RBM Lumber.