As Lyle has so kindly mentioned you have several options.

The largest asset you have now is the bucket elevator.

If the bucket elevator is tall enough you can simply add a

second distribution block to add three more pipes with

three more gates, one for each addditonal silo.

The additional pipes will require more structural support being cable stays

which connect at each joint with the cables under high tension and radiating

from wach tube at 90 degrees and extending to the previous pipe joint.

You would need to add ports for chmney brushes or pipeline pigs connected

to rods or a pull rope to clean the piping periodically as you are dealing with

a mineral to avoid plugging.

The Cableveyor could be implemented as well and be self cleaning but the issue

with moisture will always present due to the exposed structures and piping. ■

Originally Posted by utku99

Thanks for you kind replies.

But I have to use all silos seperately,

all will be filled with differant product.

So, how to feed one at a time?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards.

AS I said you can use the existing bucket elevator

to feed all six silos with the same elevator using a

primary down pipe and a diverter box feeding the

six down pipes for the flow to each of the six individual silos.

It is a simple design issue making sure that the

bucket elevator is tall enough to use gravity to its

fullest advantage to fill all six silos and reduce

plugging in the down pipes to a minimum.

This is something you should be discussing with Mssrs.

Dr.Wolbier or Lyn Bates and paying to have the design

drawn up.

Iideally you should have enough room arrange all six

silos in a linear fashion with the elevator using six pipes

fed from a central distribution box where the sliding gates

are all closed except for the one opened to fill the specific

silo which requires restocking.

The use of gravity to load silos or grain bins is a common task and has been

done in the United States and other countries for over a century. ■

There is no doubt that a six-way distributor is the cleanest, and most effective way to distribute to the different silos, but this presumes there is sufficient headroom from the bucket elevator discharge to provide sufficiently steep chutes to the outer three new silos. To secure six feed points with multiple two way dividers will certainly take more headroom as three stages will be needed, be more difficult to control and have more maintenance and risk of leakage. If there is not adequate headroom a screw conveyor could be fitted to the unused outlet of the one of the exisiting two-way dividers to transfer across the a seconf array of two-way diverters, perhaps even inclining slighly to recover headroom. Screw conveyors do have a clearance layer between the screw and casing that could cause minor cross contamination, but the amount would be minicule in relation to the quantity transferred as the bulk of the residue would remain as a static layer. ■

The distributor shown appears to be based on rotating a curved pipe with the inlet vertical, to any one of six positions, to lead material from the inlet to one of the outlets located around the periphery. This will provide a diversion system free from cross contamination and seems fully suitable for the distribution function. If details are available it would be useful to confirm theindexing mechanism and accuracy and also the transfer connection from the end of the movingpipe to the various outlet chutes.

The other requirement is to have reliable flow to and from the device, preferably by gravity if there is sufficient headroom. Connections of the feed in from the bucket elevator and feed out to the six silos should be straight and the inclination of chutes sufficiently steep to ensure self-clearing. ■

The chute slopes appear adequate, but I note that the distributor is not mounted vertically, so part of the internal pipe in some positions may be at a lower inclination. It is good practice on chute design to have a good 'lead-in' shape to ensure slip and eliminate the prospect of blockage, so you should clarify this construction with the manufacturers of the distributor. ■