Collar Mounting Machine


ALTECH Collar Mounting Machine is designed for automation of the task to place collars of cardboad or aluminum sheet around the stubs on an anode assembly. ALTECH has aslo designed special automatic Collar Filling Machine.

Stub protection is used by around thirty aluminium smelters world wide for prolonging the lifetime of the anodes in the cells, reduce repair cost of stubs on rods and improve the quality of the aluminium produced.

The collar material used in the robotic application for collar placing is either heat resistive cardboard or aluminium sheet and arrives in coils. Each coil is sufficient for approximately 1000 collars. The Collar Mounting Machine automatically feeds the material around the anode stubs, cuts it into appropriate lengths and then locks the ends together in a tight grip.
Key components
  • Collar Mounting Head with pneumatic cylinders
  • Linear Transport Unit with rails and runner blocks with a stop for each stub.
  • Rottaion Table for the coils with collar material with electrical motor
  • Electrical connection box with pre wired connection of the position sensors
  • Position sensors on the machine pre wired to the connection box
  • Pneumatic valve panel.


Major benefits
  • Eliminates a monotonous and undemanding manual job station
  • Ensures uniform size and shape of carbon collars
  • Improved aluminium purity
  • Reduced stub repair cost
  • Increased service life of anode assemblies in the cells
  • Significant operational savings


Payback period

For making an accurate cost / benefit analysis of implementing anode stub protection, it is necessary to know the following:

  • Actual cell life of the anode today
  • The average carbon thickness below the stubs
  • The height of the cryolite bath
  • Types of stub damages and the cost of such repairs.
  • The iron contents in the aluminium.


 Main features
  • Fully automatic placing of collars
  • Can use both heat resistive cardboard and aluminium collars
  • Virtually soundless
  • Cycle time for 4 stubs <60 seconds


Various models

Altech has designed the Collar Mounting Machine for different yoke configurations on anode rods with:

  • 1 x 2 stubs
  • 1 x 3 stubs
  • 1 x 4 stubs
  • 2 x 2 stubs
  • 2 x 3 stubs


    • Installations


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