Have you noticed the drum marching ever-so-slowly downhill at your asphalt plant? The weight of the drum and the weight of the aggregates you’re drying inside it will cause a downward axial thrust. It’s physics.
One of the many reasons you want to counteract this downward creep is to stop the wear on equipment. Counteracting the creep of gravity takes proper setup: make sure you set all trunnions exactly the same. If you skew them a bit to overcompensate for the downward axial thrust, don’t skew too far.
- Step 1. Adhere to OSHA lockout/tagout regs. Safety is always your first step!
- Step 2. Remove trunnion guards by loosening the adjustment plate mount bolts. (Hey! Check the bolts for corrosion while you’re working with them.)
- Step 3. Center the drum in the inlet and outlet breaching.
- Step 4. Set all trunnions to the neutral position.
- Step 5. Set all trunnions so they position the drum correctly between the thrust control rollers, introducing no more than 1/8-inch skew into the trunnions.
- Step 6. Double-check the drum is on its proper slope.
- Step 7. Tighten all adjustment plate mount bolts; replace trunnion guards; clean the area; reverse OSHA lockout/tagout regs.