Hi Gruia..

I have never come across such a book on aero conveyors, but I have used quite a few belts riding on air.

All I do is calculate the conveyor as if it were a conventional one, and use lower friction factors for the carry side.

You can go a bit steeper with them as well, and I actually quite like them.

Try to avoid vertical curves, although I do have a couple with concave radii.

Regards

LSL Tekpro ■

I suspect that, like a lot of things in materials handling, the real knowledge resides with commercial companies who make their living out of suppling the machines.

So they are unlikely to give this information away to competitors and so cut their own throats! ■

If you are prepared to splash out on an air supply I suppose an air cushion belt might do somethiong for you. The end transition behaviour might be worth some academic attention. You could calculate the parameters from first principles considering the issues of belt sag & allowable leakage. I wouldn't even bother.

As Designer says; nobody is going to publish their book on such a specialised item when there is absolutely no commercial hardware advantage. ■

Incidentally, the advantages of aero belts are:

- No carry idlers to buy or worry about (saves alot of money)

- The air plenum makes a nice gantry so you only need to put on a walk-way.

- walkway is optional as there is nothing much to maintain, so its only to get you to the top, or to get to returns.

- No carry spillage en route.

- Can go well over 20 degrees, whereas conventional normally goes to 18 degrees.

- Holdback pretty much not required

- Good for fine dusty stuff (enclosed plenum)

- Quick to make and install

- Dont need to align or train carry belt

I have one client who will have nothing else.

Regards

LSL Tekpro ■

hi to all

i just came to know that there is something called aero conveyors.

my queries are:

1) Is these conveyors can be used for any material

2) If carrying idlers are not present how will it be supported.

3) If say carrying idlers are absent then there will be tremendous reduction in your contact friction and there by there will be reduction in primemover power. Is it so?

regards

grk ■

All these questions are answered on manufacturers web sites.

Google will help you find them. ■

Hi GRK

Answers to your questions:

1) Is these conveyors can be used for any material?

Very good for fine material, and I have also seen it used on rocks

2) If carrying idlers are not present how will it be supported.?

Supported on cushion of low pressure air. There is a simple trough which forms the upper side of an air plenum. There is a single row of correctly sized holes at the correct centres to allow the air from the plenum into the bottom of the trough to support the belt.

3) If say carrying idlers are absent then there will be tremendous reduction in your contact friction and there by there will be reduction in primemover power. Is it so?

Yes there is a tremendous reduction in friction not only for the belt, which now rides on air, but there is also no material flexure.

Regards

LSL Tekpro ■

Martin Engineering is proficient in the design and installation of air supported conveyors. We would be happy to assist you if you like. Due to the expirience level required for this type of project I would recommend this route. The learning curve of doing something like this yourself could be quite costly should it not work. ■

Could not agree more Larry..

The air pressure setting, air quantity, air hole diameter, and even the air hole spacing is tremendously important to the success of the aero conveyor system.

So don't start from scratch. Buy one from someone who has done loads of them

LSL Tekpro ■

Be careful in the claim that an air supported conveyor is significantly more efficient with power verses a well designed conventional conveyor. When you fully analyze the differences, include the air compressor efficiencies as well as conveyor power.

We do not see significant power effieciency gains of the air supported conveyor over conventional. We have developed the air supported technology for others and evaluated field installations to verify claims of its superiority. There is some, but nothing to crow about. ■

All previously submitted info is basically true. There is about a 30% difference in the HP demand on a HORIZONTAL air supported belt conveyor, but when there is incline in the belt, the HP demand is about the same. BTW, a small discrepancy with a previous post, there is NO compressed air on an air supported belt conveyor. They use low volume, low pressure air from blowers you would have on a dist collection system.

The air belt can and have been used in almost every type of material, fom the fines of fresh alumina to +/-10" coal dropping 20'. Please do your research though for not all manufacturers are equal. ■

Greetings,

A novel software to aid in Air Supported Belt Conveyors configuration is being released at https://desk.asbc-eng.com

Best Regards

Nuno Rocha ■