17-year-old drum magnet a testament to quality

A MAGNATTACK Self-Cleaning Rotating Drum Magnet served one of its valued clients with effective foreign metal contamination control for over 17 years — without the need for major repairs!

How drum magnets work

Drum magnets are typically installed in dry, free-flowing product lines, such as grain or animal feed, and are typically suited to high tonnage intakes.

The product enters down through the top of the housing before coming into contact with a stainless steel drum. This drum rotates around the outside of a fixed magnet element. As the product flows over the drum, ferrous tramp and other metal contaminants are captured by the magnet and held securely to the stainless steel surface.

As the drum rotates, cleats sweep the ferrous debris through and out of the magnetic field to a discharge point — creating continuous self-cleaning separation. With metal contaminants safely removed, the good product falls freely to a separate discharge point and continues on through the process line.

This self-cleaning operation ensures that a clean surface is presented to the product flow at all times. There is minimal risk of collected fragments being dislodged by oncoming product and reintroduced to the product flow. In addition, the clean magnet is able to exert full magnetic strength to the product flow at all times and, therefore, is not at risk of ‘shorting out’. Shorting out can occur on manual-clean designs where large amounts of metal are adhered to the magnet (often a result of missed cleaning schedules), thus lowering the magnetic force on the surface of the magnet that can be applied to oncoming contaminants.

The initial supply

In the year 2000, MAGNATTACK Global supplied an RE80 Rotating Self-Cleaning Drum Magnet to an Australian client. The drum magnet was designed to remove ferrous metal fragments from incoming product and also to protect other plant equipment from damage caused by metal pieces.

• Magnetics: RE80
• Surface magnet strength: 4000–5000 gauss
• Diameter: 610 mm/24″
• Width: 750 mm/30″
• RPM: 40
• Product: Raw paddy rice
• 100 TPH/220,000 lb per hour
• Operation commenced: November 2000.

Repairs to the RE80 Drum Magnet

Like all magnets which service abrasive and high-tonnage applications, repairs are to be expected. Minor repairs such as seal replacement and the fitment of self-greasing applicators took place prior to 2018.

In February 2018, the drum magnet was returned to the company’s New South Wales manufacturing facility for the first time, to undergo more advanced repairs and maintenance. These consisted of:

• replacement of bearings
• replacement of seals
• repairs to housing
• repairs to internal magnets
• repairs to internal shafts and support bar.

After repairs were complete, the magnetic separator was personally delivered to the customer by MAGNATTACK personnel. The drum magnet has been reinstalled and now continues to provide effective foreign metal fragment control in their process line.