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Membrane Pusher for RO Plant Re-Design

A revolution in water treatment equipment, Neumann Engineering designed a semi-automatic water membrane feeding device for a Gold Coast desalination plant. The final design, a stainless steel membrane feeder, has been used on multiple projects, significantly reducing the manual labour required for membrane replacement.

The scope outlined for this project had multiple design limitations.

  • Light Weight
  • Size Restrictions
  • Ergonomically Efficient
  • Cost Effective
  • Use of food grade material in construction
  • No use of hydraulics or hydrocarbons for controls
  • Fine height and tilt adjustment
  • Safe for user during operation
  • High Duty Cycle

This resulted in a first iteration of the membrane feeder displayed below. The design satisfied the limitations as follows:

Limitation
Control Measure

Light Weight

Aluminium Construction
Aluminium Construction
Designed to fit the space requirements
Ergonomically Efficient
Designed to suit standard size operator
Cost Effective
Cost Effective
Use of food grade material in construction
Use of food grade material in construction Use food grade plastic and aluminium
No use of hydraulics or hydrocarbons for controls
Pneumatic Controls as electric was not feasible in wet environment
Fine height and tilt adjustment
Pneumatic height adjustment and use of springs for tilt adjustment
Safe for user during operation
Dead man switch incorporated into design. Operator must be pushing buttons on both handles for operation
High Duty Cycle
High Duty Cycle Finite Element Analyses utilised to verify stress in system and use of high quality aluminium

The initial aluminium design went on to replace all the membranes in the gold coast water desalination plant. The equipment was used in multiple other facilities before it reached its duty cycle and the equipment was put out of commission.

After this, a new iteration of the equipment was suggested to further improve the duty cycle and optimise the design. The new design came with additional limitations on top of the initial limitations.

The additional limitations are as follows:

  • Increase duty cycle
  • Decrease Weight
  • Improved membrane release mechanism
  • Dual direction membrane feeding
  • Dual side operation
  • Membrane loading from multiple locations
  • Elimination of height adjustability
  • Increase adjustability in pivoting and less operator physical input
  • • Tighter size restrictions
  • Increase adjustability in pivoting and less operator physical input

The design satisfied the first and second set of limitations as follows:

Limitation
Control Measure
Increase duty cycle
  • Use of food grade stainless steel
  • More efficient design for ware
  • Use of FEA
Decrease Weight
  • Use weight efficient design – material only placed where required
Improved membrane release mechanism
  • Design better suited to release membranes
Dual direction membrane feeding
  • Modified design to allow membrane feeding in both directions
Dual side operation
  • Controls placed on both sides in ergonomic location
  • More efficient design for ware
  • Use of FEA
Membrane loading from multiple locations
  • Membrane carriage connected to swivelling fork pockets for carriage loading from in front or beside the pusher
Elimination of height adjustability
  • Pneumatic height adjustability removed
Increase adjustability in pivoting and less operator physical input
  • Custom spring/damper design to limit eratic movement while allowing for pivot adjustability
Tighter size restrictions
  • Base size reduced to suit loading location
Provide a less aggressive membrane cocking system
  • Membrane lowering mechanism implemented in design

The stainless steel membrane feeder was a massive improvement on the initial design. It has been used in multiple projects and has cut the manual labour significantly in membrane replacement. Utilising smart design principles, Neumann Engineering Services was able to drive innovation in the water treatment industry.

The second iteration of the membrane feeder is displayed below.

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