A transfer chute may look like a box, with no more than 4 to 5 plates of mild steel welded or bolted together forming a cross-section, big enough for the material being handled to pass but there's more to it than meets the eye.
So, what do chutes really do? Before we get into the engineering part, let's look at what chutes are basically designed to do. Transfer chutes..
control the direction of flow of the product
control the shape of the flow stream
control spillage
control dust and environmental pollution
reduce product degradation
retard or control flow
provide surge control
A chute has to adjust the material trajectory by taking the brunt of the material flowing with respect to the conveyor belt speed, retard the flow if needed, guide it and then match with the discharge conveyor speed, without letting any material buildup occur inside the chute body. There are a number of factors that are to be looked, if both the material and the chute are to have a long life. These factors are the design parameters, namely
angle of repose of the material
abrasive index of the material
bulk density of the material
coefficient of restitution of the material
coefficient of friction of the inside of the chute
discharge section design, so as to lead to central loading on the belt
At BMHequip, we understand the need for a chute to be designed properly, and do so with the help of our engineering prowess and software needed for this.
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