Analisis Penggunaan Mesin Screw Untuk Meningkatkan Produksi dan Kadar SiO₂ Pada Pengolahan Pasir Silika di PT. Muncul Kilau Persada Lampung

Abstract

PT. MKP currently processes silica sand manually using PTO pipes and screening units. This method yields a silica (SiO₂) content of 97.48%. However, market demand—particularly from the glass industry—requires the company to supply silica sand with a minimum SiO₂ content of 99.2%, along with higher production capacity. To meet these quality and quantity specifications, PT. MKP plans to implement a mechanical processing method using a screw machine, which is expected to improve both the silica grade and the overall processing efficiency. From the results of the study on the use of 1 kg of initial raw-mat samples, with the use of a screw machine was able to produce a higher SiO₂ content with a value of 99.75% compared to the old method which only produced a content of 97,48%, thus indicating that the screw machine is way more effective in the washing process, especially in removing fine impurities compared to the previous method, then seen from the value of the silica process efficiency analysis, it produces a value of 72.58% with the use of a screw machine compared to the manual method which only produces a value of 4,09% it shows that the screw machine has an efficiency of increasing content almost twice as much as the manual method. With an input of 10 DT vessels (120 tons of raw material) with a cycle time of only 1 hour, the screw machine is able to produce 115 tons with a more uniform fraction and a higher SiO₂ content with a production value per shift of 623.5 tons. It shows the new method made faster and continuous process time, and made more efficient time and labor compared to the old methods which with the same load only producing 96 tons with a cycle time of 5.5 hours and the production value per shift is only 104.7 tons. The recovery value of silica sand in the process with using the screw machine reaches 96% which is higher compared to the previous method  which only reaches 80%. All of this numbers shows that the use of a screw machine minimizes the loss of valuable materials and proven producing a better quality and production of silica.