BUCKET ELEVATOR

Anti-clogging system and product interception

The bucket elevator is a very simple machine. It consists of a rubber belt lifting vertically bolted buckets. Each bucket transports granular or dusty products. When the belt reaches the top, the product is subjected to a spin cycle and the buckets are discharged into a hopper.

The machine is designed for the transport of a nominal delivery rate of product. It is also engineered to restart with fully loaded buckets but, in case of serious clogging, it would be difficult to set the machine in motion again.

A more powerful drive engine could be a solution to this problem but it would impact on the energy consumption during ordinary operations when the drive works under low efficiency conditions.

PTM has engineered an optional device which consists in a solution that has no consequence on the power consumptions. The system is made of an anti-clogging sensor that is placed on the tail, and a system consisting of slides. A pneumatic slide stops the product inflow as soon as the clogging is detected by the sensor. In addition, a manually operated slide adjusts the flow rate whose nominal value was set during the bucket elevator first test.

This is how the system works: when the machine starts clogging the pneumatic shutter stops the product inflow into the elevator's tail so that the product starts filling the feeding ducts.

Upon its opening, the manually operated slide will adjust the product inflow until the ducts are emptied. At this point the product will start flowing at the regular rate.

This system can prevent the bucket elevator from stopping. It can also send an alert when the machine is not regularly operating. Machine clogging is indeed a sign of an upstream problem.