Details

In many years of research work the BEUMER Group developed high-capacity belt and chain bucket elevators that need only a fraction of the energy when compared with pneumatic conveyor systems. The basis for this success is the research and development work that the machine tool manufacturer's engineers conduct in its in-house testing centre. With its developments, BEUMER, located in Beckum, massively influenced the technology of modern bucket elevators.

For many years now, bucket elevators produced and supplied by the BEUMER Group have convinced its customers. The operationally safe installations permit economically viable vertical conveying in many industrial sectors and are indispensable for successful conveying operations. As one of the market leaders, with practice-oriented development of high-capacity belt and central chain bucket elevators, the BEUMER Group has definitively shaped the model designs currently in use. Extraordinary in this context has been achievement of the world's largest bucket elevators with center distances of over 150 m and volume flows of 1,800 m²/hour.

Central chain is easy to assemble
Extraordinary work conditions and materials require the highest level of quality and precision. The BEUMER central chain bucket elevators reliably move lumpy, hot and abrasive conveyor loads like clinker, clinker chip or limestone ballast. The BEUMER high-capacity central chain bucket elevators are convincing not only with their safe and simple assembly: The innovative central chain, developed specially by BEUMER, ensures economical deployment with its precise tensile strength gradations. The bolt of the BEUMER central chain with its high core stability and its hardened surface offers permanent wear-resistant operation.
Essential structural units of the BEUMER high-capacity central chain bucket elevator are the bucket elevator head and the foot.
The bucket elevator head comprises the functional grouping of the drive wheel with the shaft, the drive unit and the material discharge. Power transmission to the central chain is accomplished frictionally engaged via a drive wheel with a non-interlocking replaceable tread. The CrMO based running treads used are partially hardened and offer permanently optimum chain control. The drive unit is fitted with a hydrodynamic liquid coupling as start-up aid and overload safety. An adjustable discharge lip in the area of the load discharge minimises load backflow. For inspection and maintenance work corresponding service flaps are provided for at appropriate points in the bucket elevator housing.
BEUMER's bucket elevator foot also offers several specialties: During the loading process in the bucket elevator foot the central chain and the buckets are led through a return chain wheel. The weight-activated parallel take-up device thereby assures optimum running and guide conditions of the chain on the tension chain wheel at the foot of the elevator. A filling level detector here as a safety device to protect against overfilling due to uncontrolled feed of material into the bucket elevator foot.

Highly varied graining
Fine-grained or even powdery products in mass flows are optimally moved by the BEUMER high-capacity belt bucket elevators. In doing so, the material graining determines the type of bucket attachment: with a grain size of up to 25 mm segment mountings are used. BEUMER rubber-batten mountings are used with grain sizes between 25 and 60 mm that can be deployed up to 70 °C. The belt's long service life offers a belt clamping connection for steel wire belts as traction elements, specially developed by BEUMER. For high-capacity belt bucket elevators with large center distances additionally a monitoring switch is used to continuously monitor the belt clamping connection's proper seating. With the safety switch developed by BEUMER such monitoring can be achieved reliably and without wear and tear with reliable contactless technology.

Flawless technology convinces the Grasim Cement GroupThe Indian Grasim Cement Group decided back in 1997 on quality products from the BEUMER Group. This was a matter of the world's highest bucket elevator with a total height of 122.5 metres. The high-capacity belt bucket elevators then supplied were only given a first inspection after six years of operation at the request of the manufacturer. Even now the installation is still running trouble-free.
With production of 32 million tons of cement per year and a 22 percent total share of the market, Grasim Cement is India's largest cement manufacturer. In the course of the cyclical boom for the construction material industry there the company's success is constantly on the rise. In 2004 Grasim took over the UltraTech Cement Works from Larsen and Toubro. The BEUMER Group in September 2006 received from the Grasim Cement Group the major order for delivery of a package of 47 bucket elevators for their new cement works (3 x 3.5 million tons per year).
The order for the Grasim Cement Group includes high-capacity belt and central chain bucket elevators in different sizes and with different capacities. With this package BEUMER is supplying six high-capacity belt bucket elevators that, with center distances of 145.65 metres, are amongst the highest in the world. Two such belt bucket elevators load one of the three high-capacity kilns with raw meal. With a bucket width of 1,000 millimetres the conveying capacity is about 550 tons of raw meal per hour. These bucket elevators are fitted with high-strength BEUMER steel wire belts with ranges free of steel wire.

Note for Bucket Elevator
A bucket elevator, also called a grain leg, is a mechanism for hauling flowable bulk materials (most often grain or fertilizer) vertically.

It consists of: 1. Buckets to contain the material; 2. A belt to carry the buckets and transmit the pull; 3. Means to drive the belt; 4. Accessories for loading the buckets or picking up the material, for receiving the discharged material, for maintaining the belt tension and for enclosing and protecting the elevator.

A centrifugal discharge elevator may be vertical or inclined. Vertical elevators depend entirely on the action of centrifugal force to get the material into the discharge chute and must be run at speeds relatively high. Inclined elevators with buckets spaced apart or set close together may have the discharge chute set partly under the head pulley. Since they don't depend entirely on the centrifugal force to put the material into the chute, the speed may be relatively lower.

Nearly all centrifugal discharge elevators have spaced buckets with rounded bottoms. They pick up their load from a boot, a pit, or a pile of material at the foot pulley.

The buckets can be also triangular in cross section and set close to on the belt with little or no clearance between them. This is a continuous bucket elevator. Its main use is to carry difficult materials at slow speed.

Early bucket elevators used a flat chain with small, steel buckets attached every few inches. Current construction uses a rubber belt with plastic buckets. Pulleys several feet in diameter are used at the top and bottom. The top pulley is driven by an electric motor.

The bucket elevator is the enabling technology that permitted the construction of grain elevators. A diverter at the top of the elevator allows the grain to be sent to the chosen bin.

A similar device with flat steps is occasionally used as an elevator for humans, e.g., for employees in parking garages. (This sort of elevator is generally considered too dangerous to allow use by the public.)

Note for Conveyor Belt
A belt conveyor consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley is called the idler. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors; Those in general material handling such as those moving boxes along inside a factory and bulk material handling such as those used to transport industrial and agricultural materials, such as grain, coal, ores, etc. generally in outdoor locations. Generally companies providing general material handling type belt conveyors do not provide the conveyors for bulk material handling. In addition there are a number of commercial applications of belt conveyors such as those in grocery stores.

The belt consists of one or more layers of material they can be made out of rubber. Many belts in general material handling have two layers. An under layer of material to provide linear strength and shape called a carcass and an over layer called the cover. The carcass is often a cotton or plastic web or mesh. The cover is often various rubber or plastic compounds specified by use of the belt. Covers can be made from more exotic materials for unusual applications such as silicone for heat or gum rubber when traction is essential.

Material flowing over the belt may be weighed in transit using a beltweigher. Belts with regularly spaced partitions, known as elevator belts, are used for transporting loose materials up steep inclines. Belt Conveyors are used in self-unloading bulk freighters and in live bottom trucks. Conveyor technology is also used in conveyor transport such as moving sidewalks or escalators, as well as on many manufacturing assembly lines. Stores often have conveyor belts at the check-out counter to move shopping items. Ski areas also use conveyor belts to transport skiers up the hill. A wide variety of related conveying machines are available, different as regards principle of operation, means and direction of conveyance, including screw conveyors, vibrating conveyors, pneumatic conveyors, the moving floor system, which uses reciprocating slats to move cargo, and roller conveyor system, which uses a series of powered rollers to convey boxes or pallets.

The longest belt in the world is in Western Sahara. It is 100 km long, from the phosphate mines of Bu Craa to the coast south of El-Aaiun. The longest single belt conveyor runs from Meghalaya in India to Sylhet in Bangladesh. It is 17 miles long and conveys limestone and shale. The Conveyor belt was manufactured in about 300 meter lengths and was joined together and installed on the conveyor at site. The job was carried out by NILOS India Pvt. Ltd. in Chennai India.

Conveyors are used as components in automated distribution and warehousing. In combination with computer controlled pallet handling equipment this allows for more efficient retail, wholesale, and manufacturing distribution. It is considered a labor saving system that allows large volumes to move rapidly through a process, allowing companies to ship or receive higher volumes with smaller storage space and with less labor expense.

Rubber Conveyor Belts are commonly used to convey items with irregular bottom surfaces, small items that would fall in between rollers, or bags of product that would sag between rollers. Belt conveyors are generally fairly similar in construction consisting of a metal frame with rollers at either end of a flat metal bed. The belt is looped around each of the rollers and when one of the rollers is powered (by an electrical motor) the belting slides across the solid metal frame bed, moving the product. In heavy use applications the beds which the belting is pulled over are replaced with rollers. The rollers allow weight to be conveyed as they reduce the amount of friction generated from the heavier loading on the belting. Belt conveyors can now be manufactured with curved sections which use tapered rollers and curved belting to convey products around a corner. These conveyor systems and are commonly used in postal sorting offices and airport baggage handling systems.

Products are moved through various tubes via air pressure, allowing for extra vertical versatility. Pneumatic conveyors are either carrier systems or dillute-phase systems; carrier systems simply push items from one entry point to one exit point, such as the money exchanging tubes used at a bank drive-thru window. Dillute-phase systems use push/pull pressure to guide materials through various entry and/or exit points.

About BEUMER Corporation
BEUMER Corporation, with main offices in Branchburg, NJ, and sales offices in Marietta, GA, is a company specializing in the design and supply of material handling and sortation systems. BEUMER Corporation is part of the BEUMER Group, headquartered in Beckum, Germany.

For over 30 years, BEUMER Corporation has been responsible for sales, engineering, local manufacturing, service, and spare parts support to a customer base that includes many industrial and service sectors.

BEUMER Corporation serves the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Our mission statement “Our goal is not the short-term profit, but the long-term success” has never been more appropriate than today and has allowed us to build a strong customer base. For details about BEUMER installations and your local BEUMER representative, please select from the menu.

Basis for BEUMER's success is the family spirit in its globally operating organization. Shareholders, management and employees form a team in which mutual co-operation is the key element. The owners' willingness to continuously invest in the family-owned company is a prerequisite for securing the company's future.

Traditional values and experiences complement each other and result in dialogue between the generations and new ideas and thoughts. For many years BEUMER has been offering training to young people to give them the chance to establish the basis for a successful professional life. The contact to universities and colleges, in the form of academic studies, builds the bridge to science and provides a pool of qualified junior employees. Even in today's time of information exchange, we continue to cherish the personal contact with our customers. The employees and the local representatives of BEUMER are always at your disposal for suggestions, questions or advice.