ANODE SCREW JACKS

Power Jacks design and manufacture Anode Screw Jacks and their systems for aluminium smelting anodes. The complete anode jacking system including motors, gearboxes, drive shafts and couplings can be supplied. The screw jacks are a special heavy duty variant of the standard screw jack designed specially for this arduous environment.

For jacking in aluminium smelters a standard screw jack is modified to cope with the harsh operating environment. Larger gears of a special bronze alloy, heat-treated steel alloy worm-shafts and large taper roller bearings all ensure durability. The lifting screw is specially forged to incorporate the clevis-end for added strength and heavy-duty seals protect the gear-set from abrasive alumina dust. One of Power Jacks strengths is that all the jacks, bevel gearboxes and shafts are manufactured in-house speeding up lead times.

Among the jacking systems provided are fixed position jacks (used extensively in Kaiser technology and similar technologies derived from Alcoa) that are robust enough to allow for a certain amount of side-loading stresses caused by thermal expansions. Where side loading is very high, a swivel-jack is employed. Invented by the company back in the 1960s and used extensively in end-to-end pre-bakes, these jacks allow for 3-degree movement in the lifting screw from the vertical. Virtually every smelter has different jacks although the principle is basically the same.