How to choose the silo conveyors

Choosing a suitable silo conveyor is the most important link in bulk grain conveying processing. Here we will discuss technology, cost, power, and dust control to find the most suitable.

The round silo has now become the most popular type due to its small footprint, convenient charging and unloading. The conveying equipment on the top of the silo needs multi-point unloading to achieve every silo’s feeding. Usually, there are the buried scraper conveyor, multiple belt conveyor, plough unloader, multi-point discharge belt conveyor, and the mobile unloading trolley.

1. Multi-point discharge belt conveyors have trolley and plough 2 types.

(1) Using the flap distributor grains can be discharged in different silos, when each discharge section climbs to a certain height through the belt. This type conveyor has a low crushing rate, low noise, low maintenance, and low energy consumption, but when the nearest silo is fed, the equipment is idling.

(2) The plough unloader has low cost, simple operation, compact structure, and materials do not need to be tilted and lifted several times. But it is difficult to run in a completely closed space, when discharging, it is dusty and noisy. The failure rate is high.

 

2. Buried scraper conveyor is traditional conveying equipment. It has compact structure, well sealing, long service time and easy to achieve multi-point discharge.

(1) Due to the lightweight and small footprint, during the silo roof construction, the steel consumables are reduced.

(2) Single buried scraper conveyor can multi-point discharge materials, reduce the transfer points, easy to proof dust and explosion.

(3) The conveyor groove has well-sealed and waterproof, and can work all day.

(4) But the buried scraper conveyor also has high energy consumption, high maintenance, high noise, high crushing rate and short single conveying distance.

 

 

3. Belt conveyor is the most widely used conveying equipment, it has smooth operation and low price. When building the belt conveying system, it needs to lap several equipments, the motors and valves quantity is large, also cables and control points increase, daily maintenance cost increases. Continuous lifting may increase the material crush, the lapping joints are easy to scatter and accumulate, and dust points increases.

 

4. Mobile trolley can achieve continuous multi-point discharging, has low energy consumption, less wear, and low crushing rate. But its size and weight are large, can not work in a closed environment. It is difficult to control dust.

 

From the initial equipment investment, the buried scraper is higher than a normal belt conveyor, lower than a multi-point discharge belt conveyor, under the same production capacity, the trestle cost is the lowest.

In terms of operating costs, the buried scraper conveyor energy consumption is really high. From maintenance and failure rate, the buried scraper and plough unloader may have more maintenance costs. For material crushing rate, the buried scraper conveyor is most influential.

In grain conveying process design, simple process flow, appropriate equipment and arrangement, can decrease the transfer points account and height, reduce the fugitive dust, improve the convey system safety. Compare with other conveyors, the buried scraper conveyor is the best fit environment friendly and dust explosion-proof.