Professional Bulk Material Conveyor Design, Installation
Bulk material conveyor systems transport powders, granules, pellets, chips, grains, and other flowable materials throughout manufacturing and processing operations. We design and install complete bulk handling solutions using screw conveyors, drag chain conveyors, pneumatic systems, and specialty equipment engineered for your material characteristics, throughput requirements, and facility constraints with enclosed dust-tight construction and optional food-grade materials.
Screw, Auger Conveyor Systems
Horizontal Screw Conveyors: Helical screw rotating inside tube or U-trough moves bulk materials horizontally. Tube diameters from 4" to 24" with capacities from 50 to 10,000 cubic feet per hour. Carbon steel for general applications, stainless steel for food and pharmaceutical processing. Speeds typically 60 to 120 RPM depending on material characteristics. Handles free-flowing to moderately sluggish materials including grain, flour, sugar, plastic pellets, wood chips, and powdered chemicals.
Inclined Screw Conveyors: Screw pitch and speed optimized for incline angles up to 45 degrees. Higher pitch angles and slower speeds prevent material rollback. Tubular construction prevents spillage on inclines. Common applications include silo discharge, hopper feeding, and elevation to process equipment or mezzanine storage.
Vertical Screw Conveyors: Fully enclosed tube with screw lifting materials vertically. Handles angles from 45 to 90 degrees with specialized screw geometry. Ideal for high vertical elevation in limited floor space. Discharge spouts at multiple heights serve various process levels.
Shaftless Screw Conveyors: Continuous helical ribbon without center shaft handles sticky, stringy, or compressible materials that would wrap around traditional screw shafts. Ideal for sludge, food waste, refuse, and materials with long fibers. Stainless steel construction for sanitary applications. Easy cleanout for frequent product changeovers.
Drag Chain, En-Masse Conveyors
Drag Chain Conveyors: Continuous chain with flights drags material through enclosed trough. Handles abrasive, hot, or chemically aggressive materials. Horizontal, inclined, and multi-plane configurations. Carbon or stainless steel construction. Capacities from 100 to 5,000 cubic feet per hour. Common applications include ash handling, foundry sand, cement, and industrial waste.
Tubular Cable Conveyors: Enclosed tube with circular discs attached to cable pulls material gently through tube. Minimal product degradation ideal for fragile materials, food products, and temperature-sensitive chemicals. Flexible routing with curves and inclines in single system. Clean design with easy sanitation for food processing.
Pneumatic Conveying Systems
Dilute Phase Pneumatic Conveyors: High-velocity air stream suspends and transports lightweight bulk materials through pipeline. Material-to-air ratios typically 1 to 15. Handles powders, granules, and light pellets over long distances with minimal space requirements. Positive pressure systems push material, negative pressure (vacuum) systems pull material. Common for flour, sugar, plastic pellets, and pharmaceutical powders.
Dense Phase Pneumatic Conveyors: Low-velocity air moves material in slugs or plugs through pipeline with higher material-to-air ratios. Reduces product degradation and wear on system components compared to dilute phase. Ideal for abrasive materials, fragile products, and applications requiring minimal air usage. Handles cement, plastic resin, food ingredients.
Bucket Elevators for Bulk Materials
Continuous Bucket Elevators: Buckets attached to belt or chain lift bulk materials vertically in enclosed housing. Centrifugal discharge for free-flowing materials, positive discharge for sticky or sluggish products. Capacities from 500 to 50,000 cubic feet per hour. Elevations up to 100 plus feet. Carbon steel, stainless steel, or abrasion-resistant construction. Common applications include grain elevators, cement plants, aggregate handling, and food processing.
Pendulum Bucket Elevators: Swinging bucket design handles fragile products with gentle loading and discharge. Minimal product breakage essential for coffee beans, nuts, snack foods, and delicate aggregates.
Material Handling Characteristics
Free-Flowing Materials
Powders and granules that flow easily like liquids: flour, sugar, salt, plastic pellets, grain. Best handled by screw conveyors, bucket elevators, and dilute phase pneumatic systems. High throughput with minimal power requirements.
Sluggish, Sticky Materials
Materials with cohesion or moisture: brown sugar, wet chemicals, food waste. Require shaftless screws, tubular cable conveyors, or specialized drag chains with non-stick coatings. Frequent cleanout access essential for product changeovers.
Abrasive Materials
Hard particles causing wear: sand, cement, aggregates, metal chips. Require abrasion-resistant steel liners, replaceable wear components, and robust drive systems. Slower speeds reduce wear rates.
Fragile Materials
Products damaged by impacts or friction: coffee beans, snack foods, pelletized products. Gentle handling with tubular cable conveyors, pendulum bucket elevators, and dense phase pneumatic systems minimizes breakage.
Applications, Use Cases
Food, Beverage Processing: Ingredient handling with stainless steel screw conveyors transporting flour, sugar, and dry ingredients, silo discharge feeding production with precise flow control, recipe batching systems with multiple material streams and automated controls, and sanitary design with FDA-compliant materials and easy washdown for allergen management.
Chemical, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: Powder handling with enclosed dust-tight systems preventing contamination, hazardous material transport with explosion-proof motors and grounded components, temperature-controlled conveyors maintaining product specifications, and clean room compatible designs with HEPA filtration and stainless steel construction.
Agricultural, Grain Handling: Grain elevator systems with bucket elevators and screw conveyors, silo filling and discharge with pneumatic or mechanical conveyors, seed processing with gentle handling to preserve germination, and animal feed manufacturing mixing and transporting ingredients.
Plastics, Recycling Operations: Resin handling with pneumatic conveyors transporting virgin pellets from railcars to silos, regrind conveyors returning scrap to process, material drying integration with hot air circulation, and blending systems mixing multiple resin streams for compounding.
Bulk Conveyor Specifications
Screw Conveyors: Diameters 4" to 24", capacities 50 to 10,000 cubic feet per hour, horizontal, inclined up to 45 degrees, or vertical configurations. Carbon steel, stainless steel, or abrasion-resistant materials.
Drag Chain Conveyors: Trough widths 6" to 36", capacities 100 to 5,000 cubic feet per hour, chain speeds 30 to 150 feet per minute. Enclosed dust-tight construction.
Pneumatic Systems: Pipe diameters 2" to 12", conveying distances up to 1,000 feet horizontal or 200 feet vertical. Dilute phase velocities 3,000 to 6,000 feet per minute, dense phase 500 to 2,000 feet per minute.
Bucket Elevators: Bucket widths 4" to 72", capacities 500 to 50,000 cubic feet per hour, elevations up to 100 plus feet. Belt or chain drive with centrifugal or positive discharge.
System Controls, Safety, Dust Collection
Bulk material conveyors integrate with programmable logic controllers (PLCs) for automated sequencing, flow control, and process integration. Level sensors in silos and hoppers control conveyor operation, weight scales provide batch control for recipe management, and overload protection prevents equipment damage from material buildup. Dust collection systems with baghouse filters or cyclone separators control airborne particles. Explosion-proof electrical components and grounding for static discharge meet safety requirements for combustible dusts.
Maintenance, Support Services
Our service team provides screw replacement, chain tensioning, bearing lubrication, and drive motor repairs. Preventive maintenance programs include wear component inspection, alignment checks, and dust collection filter replacement. We stock replacement screws, chains, buckets, and drive components for rapid response throughout the Northeast & Mid-Atlantic region. Emergency repair services minimize production downtime.
Frequently Paired Solutions
Bulk material handling systems require specialized support equipment for complete functionality:
Drum handling equipment safely moves and positions containers in process areas.
Balers compact waste materials collected during production and packaging.
Packaging lines require integrated conveyor delivery systems for continuous product flow.
In-motion scales weigh products without interrupting conveyor throughput.
Modular buildings create enclosed office and production space within facilities.
Industrial curtains partition dock areas and control temperature loss.
Industries We Serve
Sanitary and efficient processing and distribution systems.
Complete manufacturing solutions from raw materials to finished goods.
Clean, controlled environments for pharmaceutical manufacturing and storage.