Three Innovative Solutions to Bulk Material Handling Challenges

In today’s episode of the Dust Safety Science podcast, Carl Swisher, Sales Manager of 4B Components, reviews three innovative solutions to frequently-encountered challenges in bulk material handling.

Many people know 4B Components for their hazard monitoring sensors and connectivity electronics, but they also design material handling components that are unique or enhance efficiency. In 1909, 4B created the first elevator bucket from pressed steel; this long history of innovation in elevator bucket manufacturing continues today. Carl’s role is to visit customers, serve as a goodwill ambassador, and educate them on the advantages of these products.

Solution #1: Belt Splicing

Carl talked about splicing belts in bucket elevators or similar conveying equipment. In these systems, there’s a closed loop with a rubber belt. There are two traditional methods to connect these belts:

1. Mechanical Splice: Using a mechanical splice to connect the belts.

2. Overlap Splice: This method uses the elevator bolts that attach the buckets to the belt. You double up the belt and put the bolts through both layers to connect them.

Each method has its pros and cons. However, if you use an overlap splice with elevator bolts, you put a lot more strain on the bolts than they are meant to handle. Elevator bolts are designed to hold the buckets and the weight of the material, not the dead weight of the belt itself. By using them for an overlap splice, you’re adding the dead weight of the belt, buckets, and material. This can cause the bolts to snap or the flat heads to pull through the belt due to the extra torque.

To prevent this, you can use an oversized bolt with a larger head or a specialty bolt like the reference 70. The reference 70 bolt has a large washer attached to the bolt head on the pulley side of the belt. This washer extends the diameter of the bolt head, creating a larger surface area to prevent the bolt head from pulling through the belt.

Carl noted that bolt pull-through is not very common, but when it does happen, it’s a big problem. You have to drop the belt, which means dealing with the belt, buckets, and the whole assembly getting tangled in the bottom of the bucket elevator. This is a tough and time-consuming job to fix.

Solution #2: Bolt and Go Chains and Bolt and Go Paddles

While a rice mill is the focus of this case study, their situation is common for anyone in a feed mill or grain terminal. Traditionally, in en masse drag conveyor chains, the paddles that push the grain are attached to the chain with a metal attachment welded to it. A UHMW paddle is then bolted onto the metal attachment. This setup can lead to issues like the metal attachment wandering, bending the wrong way, or scraping and generating sparks.

The Bolt and Go system was developed to solve these problems. If a foreign object or obstruction gets into the conveyor, the traditional metal paddles bend back and reduce the conveyor’s efficiency. The Bolt and Go system replaces these welded metal attachments with injection-molded nylon paddles attached directly to the chain. Nylon is very abrasion-resistant, lasting about three times longer than UHMW. It is also flexible, so if it meets an obstruction, it bends and then returns to its original shape.

If a nylon paddle breaks, it can be replaced using ordinary hand tools without needing any hot work. The chain is connected with a hollow bushing through which a bolt is inserted, holding the nylon paddles on both sides. If a paddle breaks, the chain stays under tension. You simply remove the cover, undo the nylock nut, pass the bolt through the hollow bushing, replace the paddles, and tighten the bolt with a new nylock nut. This process eliminates the need to detach the chain or perform hot work, getting the system back up and running much faster than with an ordinary chain. With a regular chain, replacing attachments often requires breaking the chain and removing segments, a step that is no longer necessary with the Bolt and Go system.

“I think that it takes about four times as long to service a traditional chain as it does with the bolt and go,” Carl said. “The fact that you can do these repairs without a hot work permit is a tremendous advantage.”

4B Components normally supplies the panels in their natural white color, which works well for grain elevators or feed mills. However, certain applications, like this rice mill, use a color sorter. To accommodate this, they added a green colorant to the nylon and provided dark green paddles. If a chip or broken paddle gets into the system, the color sorter can easily detect it. While they can produce panels in any color, dark green is suitable for most applications where color is needed.

Solution #3: Optimizing Existing Casing

The industry trend is to move more material through bucket elevators and conveyors. This is driven by the need to quickly unload trucks so farmers can continue their work and to move more grain into expanded storage facilities. When more capacity is needed in a bucket elevator, there are typically two options: buy a new one, which is costly and involves tearing down the old elevator and installing a new one, leading to significant downtime.

Carl explained that 4B Components offers a unique solution through their engineering expertise. Instead of replacing the entire elevator, their mechanical engineers optimize the existing casing for maximum throughput. They analyze the casing size, pulley face, bucket placement, and the possibility of using larger buckets. Their bucket design, with features like a rounded bottom for easier fill and discharge, enhances efficiency.

In one case study, an elevator rated at 7,500 bushels per hour was optimized to handle 13,000 bushels per hour, with the potential to reach 15,000 bushels per hour. The facility had two receiving legs, allowing them to retrofit one at a time without turning any trucks away. This required investments not only in replacing belts and buckets but also in installing a new drive, increasing horsepower, and using new pulleys with larger diameter shafts. Ultimately, the retrofit was completed in a few days instead of weeks, without any disruption to operations.

Conclusion

It often happens that operational issues cause headaches, such as equipment installation problems from years ago, like an incorrectly placed inlet. This is not the fault of the millwrights but a result of how the layout was originally designed. Many customers struggle with such operational issues and seek vendors who can supply components to offset these problems and help them manage.

However, instead of providing workarounds that might not be fully effective, it’s essential to address the root cause of the problem. Specialists in the field, like those at 4B Components, can help by taking the time to understand and solve the actual issue. This approach requires dedication and expertise to ensure long-term solutions rather than temporary fixes.

If you would like to discuss further, leave your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach Carl Swisher directly:

Website: https://www.go4b.com/usa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-swisher-9b42ba/

Email: [email protected]

If you have questions about the contents of this or any other podcast episode, you can go to our ‘Questions from the Community’ page and submit a text message or video recording. We will then bring someone on to answer these questions in a future episode.