Pranjali Dongre, V.S. Deshpande

Abstract

Coal is a main source for generation of heat in the thermal power plant, hence consistent quality of coal is required. The coal is occasionally contaminated with the ferrous material. Coal consumer requires coal in charcoal form for firing. They crush the coal in a pulverizer but the iron particles cannot be crushed and hence due to the presence of iron particles, the motor of pulverizer system may be subjected to damage. In order to remove these iron particles Microcontroller based magnetic separator is designed. The application of magnetic separation relies on the behavior of individual particles under the influence of magnetic field. The method of magnetization and demagnetization is used for separating the iron particles from coal. The electromagnet is de-energized and repositioned away from the conveyor belt according to program, which is stored in microcontroller IC to allow it for cleaning the magnet. The assembly language programming and hardware circuitry controls the electromagnet activation and deactivation, motion of electromagnet mechanism and motion of conveyor belt.

Keywords- electromagnet, microcontroller, belt conveyor