What Is a Fiber Separator? Functions and Applications

Fiber separator is a waste paper processing equipment that uses the difference in specific gravity between waste paper pulp and impurities to remove light and heavy impurities from waste paper raw materials. It also has the functions of dredging and screening. Modern waste paper pulping technology requires that waste paper be thinned into fibers and impurities (such as sand, nails, plastic film, cotton yarn, grass clippings, etc.) be separated and removed while minimizing power consumption, fiber loss, and chemical usage.

Fiber Separation Processes and Types in Pulping

Fiber separation refers to the process of separating plant-based raw materials such as wood chips into individual fibers or fiber bundles. The purpose of fiber separation is to produce fiber pulp for manufacturing fiberboard. It is divided into two processes: coarse screen and fine screening. Coarse screening mainly involves separating wood chips into individual fibers or fiber bundles, some of which are also cut or torn. Fine screening is mainly used to further separate the unfinished fiber bundles into individual fibers, and to further separate, broom, and disperse them into finer fibers, increasing the total specific surface area of the fibers. Fiber separation methods are usually divided into three types: heating mechanical method, chemical mechanical method, and pure mechanical method. This centrifugal separation mechanism enables the fiber separator to efficiently remove both light and heavy impurities while maintaining fiber integrity and stable pulp quality.

The Structure of Fiber Separator

The fiber separator consists of a tank body, rotor, screen plate, transmission device, sediment pipe, and base. The base is the main supporting component, and the tank installed on the base has a conical shape as a whole. The small cone end of the tank is equipped with a pulp inlet, the center of the large cone end is equipped with a light impurity discharge outlet, the bottom of the large cone end is equipped with a heavy impurity discharge outlet, and the inner bottom of the large cone end is equipped with a baffle for collecting heavy impurities.

The center of the tank is equipped with a transmission device, and the rotor is installed on the main shaft of the transmission device, which drives the rotor to rotate at high speed. The screen plate is embedded with a bottom knife to prevent fibers from entangling the rotor. The lower part of the tank is equipped with a sediment pipe, which has two pneumatic slag discharge valves. The regular discharge of heavy debris is controlled by an electrical control box. Fiber separators can avoid the fragmentation and refinement of impurities, reduce the load on subsequent screening equipment, and can be used as ideal equipment for dredging and impurity removal.

Fiber Separator Rotor Working Principle

The pulp from the fiber separator enters the tank tangentially and accelerates under the action of the rotor, generating vortices inside the tank. The centripetal force generated by the vortices causes light debris to gather at the center of the vortices while heavy debris is thrown towards the tank wall. The light debris gathered in the center of the tank is intermittently discharged through the light debris discharge pipe installed on the front cover through the valve. The heavy debris thrown towards the tank wall, together with some pulp, continuously enters the heavy debris slag remover through the heavy debris discharge pipe. After the slag remover removes the heavy debris, the pulp is sent back to the pulp inlet pipe. The heavy debris collected in the debris tank of the slag remover is discharged through the valve at regular intervals.