Clear Thinkling
What's with a belt conveyor and a bucket elevator to move 5tph with multiple feed and discharge points ? There are better and cheaper ways.
If you look at the the Cableveyor advert which regularly appears on these pages you will see a clear pipe. So why not glass line some straight carbon steel sections and use induction hardened steel bends? ■
John Gateley johngateley@hotmail.com www.the-credible-bulk.com
Re: Best Method For Transporting Highly Abrasive Material
Hello,
You can think about using circular disc tube drag chain conveyor, if found suitable by you.
As for general trough belt conveyor, its use and suitability for glass cullet is mentioned by important publication / design manual as below:
- Dunlop - UK and Dunlop - India
- Goodyear - USA
- ContiTech - Germany
So it can be inferred that use of belt conveyor for cullet (crushed glass as granules / powder) is not new.
If you opt for trough belt conveyor, then take care of following points:
- Low speed 0.5 to 0.6 mps.
- Rubber lagged carrying rollers.
- Rubber disc fitted return rollers, or rubber lagged rollers.
- Carrying idlers should be without forward tilt.
- Idlers installation should be well aligned, perpendicular to belt motion, for more life of belt as well as idlers.
- Rubber lagged pulleys.
- Gravity take-up or screw take-up with hydraulic tension setting for no possibility of belt slip on pulleys.
- Decking plate for full length of conveyor.
- Belt cleaner of low pressure that is no fancy for 100% cleaning.
Such in-plant small belt conveyor can not have zig-zag path. So at every turn there will be transfer point. Keep them bare minimum.
Belt bucket elevators are often used for glass cullets.
Ishwar G. Mulani
Author of Book: Engineering Science And Application Design For Belt Conveyors (new print November, 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 ■
Tubular Drag
Hi Dave
I think you are on the right path. Now it is all about selecting proper conveyor materials and managing your discharges properly. Not sure casst iron is the right choice. Most of these tubular drag places will run tests on your material prior. I would insist on it if I were you. I have always used Luxme out of Montreal. They have a material testing facility. ■
Best Method for Transporting Highly Abrasive Material
Hello,
I work at a fiberglass manufacturing plant and am trying to specify a conveyor to transport glass cullet, a highly abrasive material, from one area of our plant to another. Cullet is basically granular glass, much like sand but with sharp edges instead of round particles. We currently use a combination of manual (via skid steer) and dense phase pneumatic transport to move this material, but we’re trying to get to a more automated and more reliable system.
I have salesmen recommending tubular drag conveyors to do this job, but we have concerns with abrasive wear with this technology. The advantage of a tubular drag system is that it would allow us to easily install multiple pick-up and drop-off points, and it would be easy to route through our congested plant. Also moisture content is not a problem with this technology (we currently need to dry our material to transport it) If wear is not a factor this conveyor seems like a great solution for our situation.
I’m wondering if anyone could provide me with some insight on how well a tubular drag conveyor would hold up to glass cullet. The conveyor being proposed consists of cast iron discs being carried by forged chain inside of Ø4” induction hardened steel pipe. The conveyor travels approximately 300 ft horizontally and 65 ft vertically. We are conveying 5 tons per hour, so the transport speed ends up being around 30FPM. The bulk density of the material is 80-100pcf depending on moisture content.
If there are better options I would love to hear about them. My gut feeling is that a belted conveyor with bucket elevators for the vertical sections would probably give the least abrasive wear, however this type of system would be much more difficult to install due to tight space constraints. Multiple drop-offs are difficult as well (we need to drop off material to 3 different locations from the same conveyor) Are there other options that I should consider?
Any help would be greatly appreciated…
Thanks,
Dave ■