Industrial screw conveyors or auger conveyors move bulk material such as granular solids (powder, grain, granules), semi-solids, liquids, and non-flowing material from point to point. Typical materials transferred in screw conveyors are cereals, fertilizers, animal feeds, ash, gravel, cement, and solid wastes. They drastically increase productivity, reducing the manual labor required to move the material from one point to another. A screw conveyor consists of a rotating screw shaft installed in a trough. As the screw shaft rotates, the material is moved linearly, either horizontally, vertically, or on an inclined path. The food and grain industries and aggregate mining industries use screw conveyors extensively. They are versatile and can be designed to meet the unique needs of many conveying systems.
A key component in designing industrial screw conveyors is determining the flow of the material, which can be either pulled or pushed. In this article, we walk you through key recommendations from one of IBT’s top suppliers, KWS, to help you determine where your drive unit should be located.
Simple Structure: The screw conveyor has a relatively simple structure, mainly composed of motors, screw shafts, and screw blades, making it easy to manufacture and maintain.
Good Sealing Performance: Due to the good sealing performance of the screw conveyor, it can prevent materials from scattering or flying during the conveying process, reducing material loss and pollution.
Easy to Operate: The screw conveyor is easy to operate and can be used to transport materials by controlling the motor, making it easy to master.
Easy Maintenance: The components of the screw conveyor are relatively simple, making maintenance easier and reducing maintenance costs.
Convenient Closed Transportation: Screw conveyors can adapt to various types of materials and can be transported with different equipment, such as closed belt conveyors, bucket elevators, etc., to facilitate closed transportation.
The main components of the screw conveyor include: driving device, end bearing seat, screw shaft, screw blade, end feeding port, middle feeding port, intermediate bearing seat, head bearing seat, middle discharge port, head discharge port, machine slot etc.
When screw conveyor works, the screw shaft rotates, and the material moves forward along the trough bottom of the conveyor under the push of the blade. Because of the gravity of the material and the friction between the material and the groove wall, the material does not rotate with the blade of the screw conveyor. The transportation of materials in the conveyor is a kind of taxiing.
Compared with the traditional shaft screw conveyor, the shaftless screw conveyor adopts the design of no central shaft, which can effectively prevent the influence of clogging and winding, and is suitable for conveying ribbon, loose, sticky and easy-to-winding materials. the whole conveying process is carried out in a closed conveyer, the material will not spill out and avoid secondary pollution.
The shaftless screw conveyor can be transported horizontally or in the range of 25 °.