Plastic Deformation Analysis of a Heat Treated Vibrating Screen Bracket

Vibrating screens have significantly improved the particle separation process in the mining industry. However, they operate under demanding conditions. Components such as the cross bracket, used to transmit the excitation from the actuation motors to the screen frame, are prone to failure. To improve the welded joints, a newly developed vibrating screen mounting bracket was heat-treated in the oven at 580˚C to relieve the residual stresses in the weld. The air that was trapped inside the interior of the vibrating screen bracket expanded due to the heating and this cased the permanent deformation. This necessitated detailed analysis of the behavior of the bracket under elevated temperature conditions to mitigate the permanent deformations while maintaining expected performance dictated structural integrity. This work aimed to determine the load that caused the permanent deformation of the vibrating screen mounting bracket using experimental, analytical, and numerical methods. The pressure that caused the permanent deformation was determined to be 0.510 MPa and 0.6235 MPa analytically and numerically respectively. This showed a percentage difference of approximately 18%. The solution for avoiding the expansion of the vibrating screen mounting bracket was to introduce holes onto the structure of the vibrating screen so that no air would be trapped inside the bracket.