Dear Mr. Mahmud,

I have seen the 1500 tonne capacity hopper being used for iron ore pellet etc. When the hopper is empty, the fall will be very large, but it cannot be avoided. People have tried to put ladder chute etc. in the hopper, but often it collapses due to drag of descending material.

As I can see, one has to use the level monitor switches in the hopper, and operate the incoming and outgoing system in such a manner that the storage level remains close to the top with minimum drop. Only in exceptional situation like first filling of hopper etc. there would be large drop and some degradation during this short period is to be tolerated. People with more experience specifically to this material, may come out with better suggestion.

In plant, which I have seen, the iron ore pellets are falling by about 6 meter drop on an average. However, this will be falling on sloping face of the conical top surface of storage and thereby it will have only marginal (tolerable) degradation.

Regards,

Ishwar G Mulani.

Author of Book : Engineering Science and Application Design for Belt Conveyors.

Author of Book : Belt Feeder Design and Hopper Bin Silo

Advisor / Consultant for Bulk Material Handling System & Issues.

Email : parimul@pn2.vsnl.net.in

Tel.: 0091 (0)20 25882916 ■