ADVANCES IN HEAD DESIGN FOR LARGE SUSPENDED BATCH CENTRIFUGALS

A PRESENTATION, entitled ‘An investigation of the vibration characteristics and unbalance tolerance of large (1500+) suspended batch fugals’, was made at a workshop at the 2012 ASSCT conference. The material presented was insightful and demonstrated the need for improvements in the design of these centrifugals and the supporting structure. Since the emergence of these issues some 10 years ago, the unbalance concerns identified in the presentation have been resolved in the larger Western States TITAN-Series batch centrifugals via a complete redesign of the head. An implied premise that larger centrifugals inherently have undue vibration has proven to be inaccurate. A properly designed bumper-gimbal configuration can restrict dangerously large basket deflection and simultaneously provide the dampening required for stability. The design does not necessarily produce ‘stick slip’ and other non-linear characteristics that prevent free articulation of the gimbal.