Air slide conveyor
When you are involved in the transportation of bulk powders and grains, it is helpful to understand how air conveying systems work, as it is the “best fit” solution for many industrial environments.
Air slide conveyors offer some of the most efficient and practical methods of conveying bulk powder materials. With some low-pressure air, an aerated bed, and a small slope (gravity), we can transport hundreds of tons of product over long distances.
Air slide conveyors are widely used in many industries, including mining. They deliver homogeneous dry powders, including minerals, for cement, lime, and fly ash. The food industry uses air slides to produce flour, and many powders in the chemical industry are well suited for air slides.
The air slide has no moving parts. Therefore, they are often a better solution than screw conveyors, vibrating conveyors, drag chains, and belt conveyors.
Learn how the air slide conveyor system works
Some of the basic structural features of an air slide conveyor system include:
- The cross-sectional width and height of the aerated bed determine the delivery rate
- A diverter box (tank) is used to divert flow from one direction to another.
- The air slide fabric is generally woven permeable polyester
- The inspection port provides access to a visual inspection of the inside of the slide section.
A few points about how air works with airflow delivery systems include:
- A fan or blower provides aeration air through an aeration cloth
- Weir plate for adjusting the depth of the aerated bed
- Air control valve for adjusting the amount of aeration
- The dust collection port removes waste air consumed by the product during conveying
A typical example of an air slide conveyors system
A typical air chute installation in a cement silo transports cement (bulk powder) to a distance from the silo discharge. Ultimately, it discharges the cement into a tanker via a loading chute.
Pipe wear
In the air slide conveying system, the material moves in the pipeline. Therefore, wear and tear is inevitable. In actual production, many methods must be adopted to reduce the wear and achieve the best conveying state.
4 suggestions
There are many ways to reduce wear and tear. Four frequently used suggestions are:
- Rely on experience and use the most reliable system design software to achieve the most economical air slide conveying wind speed.
- Increase the hardness of the wear surface of the equipment, and increase the hardness by surfacing or heat treatment of the workpiece.
- Use ceramic lined pipes and elbows
- Use reasonable piping arrangements
Tips
In the pneumatic air slide conveying system, the rear pipeline of the system is more worn than the front pipeline, so after a period of transportation, the pipeline needs to be rotated at a certain angle, and the rear pipeline should be moved to the front to make it wear evenly. It is firmly fixed, because the shaking pipeline will disturb the normal running track of the material, and the collision and friction will increase in the pipeline. Conveying speed, but in the place where the diameter is expanded, the minimum speed of material conveying must be guaranteed, otherwise, it will cause blockage.
