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F L Smidth

Advisor:
John Ochs, PhD
Company Mentor:
Jason Euculano ’96, PE – Senior Design Engineer – Product Development

Team:
Edward Focacci, ME ’06
Daniel Levine, ME ’06
Matthew Turner, SCM ’05
Thomas Weiss, ME ’06
Brandon Wellington, ME ’06
Jesse Yoon, ME ’06

Noise Reduction Device
In order to reduce the size of the semi-finished cement called “clinker” into the gray powder form known as portland cement, the clinker must be processed in a ball mill. As the ball mill rotates, 500 tons of steel balls of various sizes tumble and crush the clinker into a fine powder. The continuous collision of the balls against both the clinker and walls of the ball mill create a great deal of noise. This noise is known to reach a level of well over 100 decibels causing a number of problems including hearing loss and worker fatigue. Due to this harsh environment, employees can only be exposed to the noise for a very limited time and are required to wear multiple forms of hearing protection. The goal of this project is to devise a product that is able to reduce the noise level by 15 decibels without compromising the original design of the ball mill. Additionally, the product must be designed to allow for regular inspection and maintenance.