Powder conveyors are specialized mechanisms used to transport fine powder materials in manufacturing, storage, or shipping facilities. Conventional conveyor belts are not suitable due to contamination, dust generation, and explosion risks. Common types include pneumatic, aeromechanical, screw, chain, and bucket lift systems. These systems have sealed conveying chambers and slow conveying speeds to reduce risks. Screw conveyors are ideal for short distances and steep slopes, while pneumatic and aeromechanical conveyors have high feed forward speeds. Disc chain and bucket elevators are used for vertical transport.
A powder conveyor is a specialized material conveying mechanism designed specifically to move fine powder materials within manufacturing, storage or shipping facilities. While powdered cargoes can be – and often are – transported with conventional conveyor belts, realities such as potential contamination of cargoes or the environment, dust generation and explosion risks usually require the use of specialized conveyors for these materials. Some of the more common types of powder conveyors include pneumatic, aeromechanical, and screw systems. Chain and bucket lift systems are also often used to move powdery materials. While most of these systems differ greatly from each other, they do share some similarities, such as sealed conveying chambers and relatively slow conveying speeds.
The materials fed are usually difficult to transport within manufacturing, storage and distribution facilities. This is especially true for very fine aggregates, foods and hazardous materials. Cargoes could become contaminated or cause contamination of the environment from spills and dust generation from open dusty cargos is always a problem. In fact, even the dust of apparently inert materials, such as flour, can pose serious risks to the health of the operators’ respiratory tract and, under certain circumstances, could explode if inadvertently ignited. For these reasons, conventional conveyor belts are rarely used to transport fine powder materials because there are specialized powder conveying systems which reduce all the risks inherent in the transport of powders.
There are many types of powder conveyors on the market, all specifically designed to transport fine materials safely and efficiently. One of the most common of these is the screw conveyor. Based on the auger design, these powder conveyors are ideal for transporting these materials over fairly short straight distances, especially on steep slopes. Consisting of a coarse thread designed element that rotates in a sealed cylinder, the screw powder conveyor is also one of the simplest and most reliable types. As the screw element rotates any material, including fluids, placed in the pipe is moved forward to the point of discharge in the feed spaces between the individual threads.
Another common type of powder conveyor is the pneumatic conveyor. Air is pumped out of a sealed conveying tube, creating a vacuum that draws in any material placed within it along its length. Aeromechanical conveyors work on a similar principle and consist of a series of discs strung along a cable and the discs travel at high speed in a sealed tube. As the discs move through the tube, they create a stream of air that carries the powder down the tube. Both of these types are characterized by rather high feed forward speeds.
Disc chain powder conveyors look a lot like the aeromechanical conveyor with a series of discs on a centrally located chain in a sealed tube. Unlike aeromechanical conveyors, however, they mechanically lift the material in the spaces between the discs and transport it down the pipe to the point of discharge. Another fairly common powder conveying method used to lift fine material vertically is the bucket elevator. These systems feature a series of closely spaced bucket containers on an endlessly rotating vertical belt. As the belt rotates around the lower pulley, the buckets pass through the powder bin at the bottom of the system, filling them and carrying them to the top of the assembly, where they are discharged as the belt travels over the upper pulley.
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