This article is a little different, but related to a lot of the decisions we make about screw conveyor design. Over the years, we have tailored our product offerings toward a particular design style for screw conveyors. We have worked hard to offer the screw conveyor parts customers are looking for and keep the costs of these parts the lowest in the market. As we have fine tuned this over the years a similar design concept to our screw conveyors has emerged. This design offers superior cost savings, reliability and performance. Here we will talk about the features and benefits of the SCP screw conveyor design.
Cost Savings
One of the areas we pride ourselves on is designing screw conveyors that both perform well and are economical. How do we do that? We use all stock parts, or modified stock parts. Doing this ensures the cost is kept down, leadtimes are shorter and long term maintenance is easier due to the availability of replacement parts. The cost of stock parts is barely more than the cost of the steel in them and considering the complexity of building a screw this is pretty good. The economies of scale allow this to happen.
Design
There are a few key features to every SCP screw conveyor design we utilize to maximize performance, increase reliability and lower costs. The overall design theme gravitates towards a few key features that allow this to happen.
- Length – Staying within standard screw lengths is a key to keeping costs down. A standard length 10ft screw conveyor is cheaper to make than a made to order 7ft screw conveyor because the 7ft parts have to be made once and the 10ft parts are made 20 at a time. So, whenever possible we use the standard length and if needed, adjust the inlet and discharge location to fine tune the conveying length.
- Assembly – Assembling screw conveyors is actually not that hard for most millwrights and mechanics. 70% of our screw conveyors are sold as kits with all the parts, hardware and gasketing required to field assemble the screw conveyor. This can eliminate as much as 30% of the costs when shipping is considered.
- Tornillo – Whenever possible, we use helicoid, standard length screws. Helicoid flighting is easy to make, very durable and has excellent strength. Compared to a sectional screw, it can be half to a third the cost.
- Sello del eje – Shaft seals are one the areas we can gain the most performance upgrade while reducing costs. The standard waste pack seal used in most screw conveyors is little more than an oil seal, offering very little actual shaft sealing. Most manufacturers have to use an expensive packing gland seal which requires the additional costs of pedestal trough ends, too. This can easily add $3,000 – $5,000 to the cost of the screw conveyor. The SCP design uses the SCP Master Seal, a mechanical shaft seal that takes the place of the waste pack seal and offers better sealing than a packing gland seal while only adding a few hundred dollars over the costs of the waste pack seal.
These 4 design features are a large part of what we do to keep the overall cost of the screw conveyor down, while increasing performance and long-term maintainability. Need to know more? Email or call us anytime.
