In stead of 'cobbling' together your own machine, just purchase one from a reputable manufacturer who will know what design features to incorporate based on his years of experience. ■

Hi there,

I second designer's notion to buy one instead of doing this trial and error style. The auger noise issue seems to stem from too little clearance around the OD and is most likely not stiff enough. Good luck with the bearing problem - many manufacturers have paid plenty of R+D money to make that assembly as trouble free as possible. You will have to follow in their foot steps. Not that you cannot find a way how to do this, just be prepared to tinker aroung this for a while and spend money a little at a time to figure it out. Good luck either way, the forum is full of people who can recommend auger conveyers to you.

All the best,

Ralf ■

Exactly what is a “Loud Friction noise”? When the spiral is not supported by hanger bearings the clay material will act as the bearing to support the spiral. If you operate the conveyor inlet “starve fed” the spiral will bang against the outer pipe. Try operating the inlet flooded with material to see if it quiets.

Is your drive motor located in the inlet or discharge end? Most of the flexible-screw conveyor companies we work with locate the motor at the top (discharge) and do not have any bearings on the lower (inlet) end. They leave the spiral free to move in the tube, or will supply a short stub that loosely fits inside the spiral to locate the inlet end.

Regards, Delmar Schmidt

Melfi Technologies Houston

www.melfitechnologies.com ■

If you have no reputable local supplier consider importing.

While not a screw conveyor designer, I would suggest that

1) your centre tube is too small for a 6m unsupported span.

2) by using a pipe rather than a conventional U trough you have made maintenance difficult. Either change to a U trough or split the pipe into two sections longitudinally.

3) you are not handling a single material but two, one then the clay is dry and free flowing , and one then the clay is wet and sticky.

When the clay is sticky be prepared to have to clean the inside of the pipe regularly. You may also need t clean out any build-up between the flighting and centre tube.

When the clay is dry and fine, that's when you need a proper shaft seal to protect the bottom bearing. Checkout this link https://edir.bulk-online.com/profile...ex-bearing.htm ■

Originally Posted by mullerchas

Thanks for your input. Sorry, but do not have a reputable manufacturer in this country. Spiral is 6m long & is not supported by hanger bearings. Clearance between spiral and wall is 6-8 mm. Axe of the spiral is not very stiff, it is made of hollow thick extruded pipe, 6 cm in diam.

Spiral is not starve fed. In winter Clay powder is not very dry, it seems to stick to the inner surface of the pipe and the spiral rubs on it and hardens the powder , thus causing this friction noise. When we bang and hit on the pipe from outside most of the noise goes away to come back after sometime.

Drive motor is located on the discharge end.

Regards,

Charles

The sukup elevator company has one or more distributors in the mediteranean area. ■

Originally Posted by lzaharis

The sukup elevator company has one or more distributors in the mediteranean area.

I'm not sure I would recommend grain augers for this application

This equipment is more suitable

http://www.spirotechgroup.co.uk/products.html ■

Originally Posted by designer

I'm not sure I would recommend grain augers for this application

This equipment is more suitable

http://www.spirotechgroup.co.uk/products.html

Sukup makes elevators for almost anything flowable. ■

Originally Posted by lzaharis

Sukup makes elevators for almost anything flowable.

Then they should update their web site which only appears to talk about grain

I'd still be looking at suppliers of more heavy industrial equipment similar to the site I referenced. ■

The screw tube is obviously inadequate to resist excessive deflection over 6M and the pitch appears unnecessarily short for an inclination of 20 degrees. However, it seems likely that the screw is suffering 'epicyclic rolling', possibly on a firm deposit in the clearance layer if there is a prospect at all of moisture being present. This occurs when the flight tip binds on the contact surface and rotates the screw around its axis, like a coin running round a bowl.

This phenomenon gives rise to high frequency 'chattering' of severe magnitude due to the multiplying factor of screw diameter/flight clearance distance. The behaviour in acute cases can be quite frightening to experience. There is a way to minimise this prospect if the crude equipment is otherwise acceptable. Offsetting the end bearing and providing a simple seal will also isolate the bearing from contamination. ■