Rotating Sludge Scraper – bridgeless

New uniquely designed circular sludge scraper

The Zickert Z3700 is developed by Nordic Water with a new innovative driving design. The sludge scraper is designed to transport bottom sludge and, optionally, floating scum in circular shaped sedimentation tanks in municipal and industrial water purification plants. The sludge scraper is easy to adapt to existing tanks without the need of extra concrete works. The Z3700 is lightweight, easy to install and very reliable. This makes it an economically interesting choice as well for new plants as for retrofitting.

Unique fixed drive unit
The drive unit is a fixed installation at the tank side, which eliminates the need for a travelling bridge structure. The scraper is electrically powered by a parallel shaft helical gear motor. The gear is directly connected to the vertical drive shaft which transfers the motion from the drive, at the top of the tank, to the scraping unit at the tank bottom. A force sensor device protects the unit from overload. The drive unit is mounted on a platform which enables full access around the drive unit.

Drive shaft and wheel
A vertical shaft connects the gear motor to the to the drive wheel assembly at the bottom of the tank. The drive wheel consists of a specially designed sprocket, powering a circular drive ring along the tank wall. The drive wheel assembly is connected to a support console attached to the concrete wall. The wheel is rotated by the drive and powers the circular drive ring. The wheel bearing can handle loads in all directions.

Advantages

No bridge
No chain rail
Low weight – easy to install
Low height – easy to cover
Low wear
Minimal disturbance to sedimentation process

Benefits
Easy electrical supply, maintenance and repairs
No requirements on the concrete at the tank side makes
retrofitting easy and cost effective
Ice and snow pose no problems
Easy to cover at low cost
Low service and maintenance costs
Efficient sedimentation process