SCP Solution - Incline Screw Conveyor for Recycled Metals

Customer:

Interco Trading – Madison, IL

Application:

Convey and elevate recycled metal from the granulator to a rotary sifter

Product Being Feed:

Recycled Metal

Equipment:

9” Dia. x 20’-0” Lg Screw Conveyor Kit with Internal Shrouds.

Customer Challenge:

Interco, an industry leader in nonferrous metal recycling has experienced a record year and with excitement from its shareholders needed to begin to reinvest in its processes. With a material processing and handling system that has been pushed to its limit to meet customer demand, the Interco Facilities Manager needed to upgrade the equipment to meet current demands and reduce downtime. One of the first areas needing improvement was the incline screw conveyor from the granulator to the rotary sifter. The existing conveyor was running too fast and on too step of and incline to keep up with the process flow. After having used a previous SCP Screw Conveyor Kit to solve their needs, Interco contacted SCP to provide a custom solution for this application.

SCP Solution:

Screw Conveyor Parts Engineers worked closely with Interco Trading to custom design a solution for their application. The inclined screw conveyor had to be able to meet their demands while also being reliable and since the existing unit was failing, a solution needed to be delivered as soon as possible. The SCP Engineers calculated the flow rate and with the added inefficiencies of an incline to determine a 9” tubular screw conveyor would be needed. A tubular conveyor is more efficient on an incline because it keeps the material from falling over the top of the screw. The problem with a tubular screw conveyor was both access for cleanout and time to fabricate the custom housings. As an alternative, a stock SCP Screw Conveyor Kit was used and custom shrouds were built. The shrouds bolt in and were able to be fabricated much quicker than an entire trough. Since the stock SCP Screw Conveyor Kit uses all stock components, replacement parts are readily available, standardized and low-cost. An SCP Air Purge Master Seal was used at the bottom of the incline because of its superior sealing capabilities, enhanced performance with abrasive materials and low cost. The screw conveyor drive was sized to account for the incline and inefficiency of the screw while keeping the speed down to increase long-term reliability. A drive gearbox and reduction ration were selected to match the required speed, but more importantly meet the delivery date. This custom solution went from concept to reality in only a matter of weeks thanks to Screw Conveyor Parts’ streamlined approach to engineering and manufacturing.