IPTEK, The Journal of Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2024 (eISSN: 2807-5064) 51 Implementation of Air Sweep to Prevent Blockages on The Salt Crystallization Process Heru Mirmanto a* , Arino Anzip a , Dedy Zulhidayat a , Joko Sarsetiyanto a a Department of Industrial Mechanical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya, 60111, Indonesia Abstract In the process of crystallization salt, blockages often occur due to the large amount of salt that sticks to the wall’s hopper of the crusher machine. Seeing this condition, a Salt Cleaning Tool was designed using the air sweep method. In the first step of the design, a survey was carried out to find out how thick and the area of salt that sticks over a certain period. Furthermore, experiments were carried out to determine the position of the nozzle and the air pressure needed to knock out the salt attached to the hopper. The control system uses Arduino hardware as a micro controller tool. The experimental results require that the spray direction is tangential to the hopper surface, so the nozzle on the market needs to be modified. Likewise, an air pressure of 6 bar .is required and a burst time period of every 3 seconds with a nozzle opening time of 250 milliseconds with the condition that three solenoids are open together. Modification of the nozzle The control system uses Arduino hardware as a micro controller tool. The implementation of the air sweep as a salt cleaning tool has been successful, this is evidenced by operation of the crusher machine without problems. Keywords: Air sweep; Hopper; Nozzle 1. Introduction The salt production process in the Salt Industry is carried out by means of multilevel processing, where the seawater evaporation process is carried out in the evaporator area and the crystallization process is carried out in the crystallization area. In the crystallization process, the first stage of salt is put into the hopper to be crushed in the crusher machine I, then washed in the washer machine. After that, it is crystallized in the evaporator and then crushed in the second stage in the crusher machine II. Considering that the water content in the salt is still high, in this process salt often sticks and causes buildup on the hopper walls. this results in a blockage of the outlet. To overcome this the operator beats the outer wall of the hopper so that the adhering salt can fall out. If it's too late, the pile of salt that sticks will get bigger and the salt will harden. So that the adhering salt can be released, the operator does the cleaning by pushing it manually using a shovel (stainless steel). The action of beating the outer wall of the hopper can cause damage and leaks, so the production process must be stopped and the hopper wall must be repaired frequently with the welding process. This condition can disrupt the salt production process and increase maintenance costs. In order to reduce the costs incurred in the context of stopping the production process and adding employees in charge of cleaning the hopper walls and the cost of repairing this product-based research is intended to design and develop a salt cleaning tool using an air sweep system. Some of the advantages of compressed air systems that they are widely used in automated production systems include easy storage, simple in design and management, many choices of movements (linear, rotary, angular, and others), relatively low cost, reliable, no impact on the environment, safe [1]. In addition to the above advantages, pneumatic machines are usually clean, easy to integrate, and have a high power/weight ratio, so when compared with other alternative technologies they have an initial investment advantage of 10:1 [2]. Air sweep systems are used for fast, uninterrupted flow of bulk material. It can be used for granular and fine materials as well as for dense and entangled materials such as salt. In addition, it is also cost and energy-efficient, moves very fast and flows are well-controlled [3]. This method was chosen because it is the most effective and inexpensive method in solving problems and is expected to help increase the effectiveness of the production process and help reduce maintenance costs. So, the goal of this research is to design and make an air sweep system equipped with control device that functions to circulate compressed air to the nozzle. There are 6 types of compressed air