Not enough detail to give a definitive answer. But I would think you would be looking at the same or higher cost than going with a hydraulic lift because of the custom design. The HP required to lift the weight by rotating a large screw could be high. You could possibly look into a ratcheting 2 pin jack type system but I do not know its capacity and again it would be custom designed.

We would need to see drawings and more detail to give you a real answer. Stick with what already works efficiently rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. ■

There are innumerable portable quarry machines around. The supporting structures are very simple.

The obvious cheap way to vary the inclination is by luffing the boom using a winch mounted atop the upper cross beam of the support. Nothing else compares! Hydraulics means a complex power pack (reliability) and a screw is quite ludicrous (manual effort).

From the nature of the question it seems like you are starting out as a designer. Just make sure your conveyor is stable on shut down. I have had to ask many designers if they checked that as the conveyor finally empties, the top heavy machine would not fall over. Will yours? ■

Hello,

Referring to your query about portable (mobile) inclined conveyor of approximately 15 feet discharge height, some information is as below:

In general, such conveyor will have horizontal base (chassis) with 4 wheels. On this, the inclined conveyor boom (frame) is pivoted at rear end of the horizontal base. As mentioned by you, the boom conveyor inclination can be changed by:

i) Hydraulic piston cylinders along with its hand pump or motorised pump.

ii) By screw-nut jack arrangement (i.e. linear actuator).

iii) Scissors mechanism , etc.

You can also think of one more option as below:

‘Inverted U-shaped mast’ fixed vertically on machine base, and spanning over inclined boom, approximately in mid-zone. You can install winch rope system from this mast to change the inclination of conveyor. The winch drum to be operated through worm reducer to provide self-locking feature. The worm reducer operation can be motorised / manual by handle, as per need / choice. The winch drum & worm unit will have additional brake for safety. This arrangement is reliable and may be quite economical.

Ishwar G. Mulani

Author of Book: ‘Engineering Science And Application Design For Belt Conveyors’. Conveyor design basis ISO (thereby book is helpful to design conveyors as per national standards of most of the countries across world). New print Nov., 2012.

Author of Book: ‘Belt Feeder Design And Hopper Bin Silo’

Advisor / Consultant for Bulk Material Handling

System & Issues.

Pune, India. Tel.: 0091 (0)20 25871916

Email: conveyor.ishwar.mulani@gmail.com

Website: www.conveyor.ishwarmulani.com ■

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