NOTES / THE TRANSFER POINT
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Notes on
material flow.
Short, practical engineering notes: why material stops flowing, which conveyor fits which duty, what to send before you ask for a quote. Written to be useful before you ever talk to us.
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How to specify a bulk material conveying system
A step-by-step guide to specifying a bulk material conveying system: material data, duty, route, conveyor type, transfer points, drives and controls — and what to put in the enquiry so the answer is useful.
Why material stops flowing: bridging, ratholing and mass flow
Why a silo or hopper stops discharging — arching (bridging), ratholing, flushing and segregation — and how outlet size, hopper angle, wall friction and the feeder decide whether material flows.
Transfer point design: dust, spillage and chutes
Why conveyor transfer points make dust and spillage, what the material stream does when it leaves the head pulley, and how chute geometry, loading, skirting and sealing bring it under control.
Belt, pipe, screw, airslide or bucket elevator? Conveyor types compared
How the main mechanical conveyor types for bulk materials compare — belt, pipe, screw, airslide and bucket elevator — on material, capacity, distance, incline, containment, energy and maintenance, and how to pick between them.
Conveyor belt tracking problems: causes and fixes
Why a conveyor belt runs off centre and how to find the cause: conveyor belt tracking read from the symptom, a 12-point checklist in the order to work through it, and what training idlers cannot do.
Carry-back and belt cleaner selection
Carry-back is material that stays on the belt past the discharge. Nine rules for belt cleaner selection and set-up — primary, secondary, tertiary, wash box, V-plough — and what cleaners cannot fix.
Conveyor idlers: troughing angle, spacing and selection
Anatomy of a conveyor idler set, how troughing angle changes the load a belt carries, how close idlers should be, where impact, transition and training idlers go, and what a seized roll does.
Bucket elevators: centrifugal vs continuous discharge
How centrifugal and continuous discharge bucket elevators differ — speed, bucket spacing, feeding, materials and wear — plus belt versus chain, and what goes wrong in the head and the boot.
Screw conveyors for sticky and fibrous materials
Field notes on why screw conveyors jam on sticky and fibrous material, which flight — ribbon, shaftless, variable pitch — suits which duty, trough loading and speed, and when not to use a screw.
How airslides work — and when they don't
How an airslide conveyor moves fine powder by fluidising it over a porous membrane on a slight slope: which powders suit it, the parts, slope and air, fault-finding, and when it will not work.
Pipe conveyors: when a closed belt earns its cost
What a pipe conveyor is, when its enclosed, curving belt earns its cost — dust, curves that remove transfer towers, steeper inclines — and what it costs in power, belt, idlers and space.
Bulk density, angle of repose, flowability: the properties that decide the design
What bulk density, particle size, angle of repose, moisture, abrasiveness, cohesion and wall friction each drive in a bulk handling design, how they are measured, and indicative values for common materials.
Bulk material handling glossary
Plain-language definitions of the bulk material handling terms that change a design: bulk density, angle of repose, mass flow, ratholing, carry-back, troughing angle, airslide, airlock and more.
What to send an engineer before asking for a quote
The twelve pieces of information a material handling engineer needs before quoting a conveyor, silo or transfer point — and why each one changes the answer. Printable checklist.
What a feasibility study actually delivers
What a material handling feasibility study is for, what it delivers — design basis, options, concept layout, equipment and load lists, indicative budget — and what it is not, in twelve questions.
How to read a general arrangement drawing
What a general arrangement drawing shows and what it leaves out, how to read its views, levels, grid lines and equipment tags, and how to review a conveyor GA in twenty minutes without missing a clash.
Material handling engineering in northern France: how we work with plants
How Greening, an industrial engineering office in Somain (Nord), works with plants across Hauts-de-France and the Belgian border on conveying, storage and material flow — from a site visit to commissioning.
New conveyor on existing steel: what to check first
The loads a new conveyor puts on an existing steel structure — dead, live, belt tension, dynamic, impact, blocked-chute surcharge, wind — and the nine checks to make before the equipment is ordered.
Clinker handling: hot, abrasive, unforgiving
How cement clinker behaves as a bulk material — hot, abrasive, dusty, reactive with water — and which conveyors, bucket elevators, chutes and storage survive it, plus what to check on an existing clinker line.
Wood chips and biomass: why storage is the hard part
Why wood chips and other biomass bridge, rathole and self-heat in storage, which reclaim system suits which fuel — silo, walking floor, push floor, live bottom — and what to check on an existing store.
Fly ash handling: keeping a fine powder contained
How fly ash behaves — fine, hot, abrasive, quick to fluidise and slow to settle — and what that means for airlocks, airslides, silos, unloading and dust containment on a power plant ash line.
Fertiliser handling: caking, hygroscopic behaviour and equipment
Why fertilisers cake — critical relative humidity, moisture cycling and pile load — and how conditioned storage, first-in-first-out turnover, enclosed transfers and corrosion-resistant equipment keep granules flowing.
Cullet and glass batch: abrasive, precise, dusty
A datasheet for glass batch and cullet handling: how sand, soda ash, limestone and cullet behave, the batch house steps from reception to charging, what wears and segregates, and what to check on an existing line.
Retrofit or replace an ageing conveyor line?
How to decide whether to retrofit or replace an ageing conveyor line: four questions on duty, structure, downtime and cause, the four outcomes, the retrofits that pay back first and when replacement is honest.
How a material handling project runs, from enquiry to commissioning
The seven stages of a material handling project — enquiry, study, design, supply, assembly, commissioning, support — what happens in each, what the plant provides, who does what, and where projects lose time.
Conveyor safety switches and silo flow aids: what they do
What each conveyor safety switch and silo flow aid actually does — pull-cord stops, belt drift, zero-speed, plugged-chute and rip detection, vibrators, air cannons, fluidising pads, bin activators — and what none of them can do.
Not covered here?
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