Bulk material handling is in process manufacturing and is essential to all industries. Most companies use it to solve problems in the production process. There is a lot that is involved in the handling of bulk solids. But before getting to that, you need to understand what bulk solids handling is?
Bulk Solids Handling?
It refers to a field that focuses on designing equipment to handle and process bulk solids. Bulk solids include dry materials that are granular, powdery, lumpy, and are stored in heaps. Examples of bulk materials include ores, coal, wood chips, gravel, sand, ash, clay, Cement, grain, flour, and sugar.
Bulk solids handling is a vital part of all industries that deal with the processing of bulk ingredients. They include confectionery, food and beverage, animal feed, tobacco, petfood, chemical, polymer, plastic, rubber, ceramic, minerals, textiles and paper.
What are the major characteristics of bulk solids?
They include:
• The size of the lump
• Bulk weight or density
• Moisture content
• Particle mobility
• Abrasiveness
• Corrosivity Angle of repose
• Systems used in Handling bulk solids
• Bulk materials systems consist of stationary machinery such as:
• Screw conveyors
• Conveyor belts
• Moving floors
• Top loaders
• Tubular drag conveyors
• Reclaimers
• Bucket elevators
• Stackers
• Railcar dumpers
• Ship loader
• Hoppers
• Wagon tipplers
In addition, the system also includes mobile equipment such as loaders, mobile hopper loaders, and different shuttles that combine with storage facilities. These facilities include storage silos and stockyards. But when using advanced bulk solids handling systems, they come with integrated silos, conveying, and discharge.
A bulk material facility’s function is to transport material from one of the various locations or to process materials. An example is ore concentrating and smelting or handling materials for manufacturing wood chips, logs, and sawdust at sawmills.
Bulk material handling is used in various industries. It helps to ensure the production of quality products, provision of storage, and material blending.
