International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2013)

Productivity Improvement of Screw Conveyor by Modified

Design
Jigar N. Patel1, Sumant P. Patel2, Snehal S. Patel3
1
Research scholar, U.V.Patel engg. Coll. Ganpat univ.
2
Assistance Proffessor, U.V.Patel engg. Coll. Ganpat univ.
3
Research scholar, U.V.Patel engg. Coll. Ganpat univ.

AbstractScrew(Auger) conveyors are widely used for The rate of volume transfer is proportional to the rotation
transporting and/or elevating particulates at controlled and rate of the shaft. In industrial control applications the
steady rates. They are used in many bulk material device is often used as a variable rate feeder by varying the
applications in industries ranging from industrial minerals, rotation rate of the shaft to deliver a measured rate or
agriculture, chemicals, pigments, plastics, cement, sand, salt
quantity of material into a process.
and food processing. They are also used for metering
(measuring the flow rate) from storage bins and adding small Screw conveyors can be operated with the flow of
controlled amounts of trace materials such as pigments to material inclined upward. When space allows, this is a very
granular materials or powders. economical method of elevating and conveying. As the
Here in this paper we represent the modification of screw
conveyor for get same output from modified design with
angle of inclination increases, the allowable capacity of a
reduced size and less power consumption. And also given the given unit rapidly decreases.
generalized design of shaftless screw conveyor(SSC) for 2
tonnes per hour capacity to convey cement. The finite element
analysis (FEA) of both model is given so we can easily find
that the design is safe or not for industrial use.

KeywordsScrew conveyor, Auger, SSC, FEA, bulk

material.

I. INTRODUCTION
A screw conveyor or auger conveyor is a mechanism that
uses a rotating helical screw blade, called a "flighting",
usually within a tube, to move liquid or granular materials.
They are used in many bulk handling industries. Screw
conveyors in modern industry are often used horizontally
or at a slight incline as an efficient way to move semi-solid
materials, including food waste, wood chips, aggregates,
cereal grains, animal feed, boiler ash, meat and bone meal,
municipal solid waste, and many others. First screw
conveyor was invented by Archimedes (circa 287212
B.C.).For elevating water from the hold of a King Hero of
Syracuse ship.[1] The geometry of an Archimedes screw is
governed by certain external parameters (its outer radius,
length, and slope) and certain internal parameters (its inner
radius, number of blades, and the pitch of the blades). Chris
Rorres[2] found that the inner radius and pitch that
maximize the volume of water lifted in one turn of the
screw. They usually consist of a trough or tube containing
either a spiral blade coiled around a shaft, driven at one end
and held at the other, or a "shaftless spiral", driven at one
end and free at the other.
492
Fig. 1.1 Screw conveyor[8]
The rotating part of the conveyor is sometimes called
simply an auger.
The aim of this paper is to design of 2 tonnes per hour
capacity screw conveyor as per IS codes and to setup
generalized methodology to design screw conveyor. The
modification of screw conveyor is done by removing shaft
from screw and setup generalized methodology to design
shaftless screw conveyor.
II. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF SCREW CONVEYOR
The capacity of screw conveyor depends on the screw
diameter, screw pitch, speed of the screw and the loading
efficiency of the cross sectional area of the screw. The
capacity of a screw conveyor with a continuous screw may
be expressed as[3]:
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2013)

Q = V

Q = 60 D2SNC
From this equation we get the diameter of screw
conveyor required to convey material. Design is given for
convey cement. The distance is about 5 meter. For this
parameter 148mm diameter is required.
Power requirement of screw conveyor basically
depends on the length of screw conveyor, capacity and a
Fig. 2.1 Model of screw
factor for total apparent resistance. This resistance varies
with respect to type of material conveyed that is its nature,
And analysis of screw conveyor is carried out using
abrasiveness, grain size, internal resistance, etc., and many
ansys 12.1.
also depend upon the degree of filling. There are various
Applying the loading conditions
factors with quite a few variables involves for
determination of power requirement of screw conveyor
depends, are as follows [4] [5]:
a. Friction between the casing and the transported
material.
b. Friction between the screw and the transported
material.
c. Friction in the intermediate and in the end bearing and
hence on type of bearings installed.
d. Friction in the axial bearing owing to axial force.
e. Additional resistance due to partial compensation of
thermal expansion of the screw supported between the
material or when the temperature difference between winter
and summer is too high and the screw conveyor is Fig. 2.2 loading conditions
comparatively long.
f. Additional resistance owing to accumulation of Result
transport material at the intermediate bearings, mixing and
rolling of the transport material.
g. Additional resistance for friction of the screw edge
with the transport material when a grain is wedged between
the grain between the screw and the casing.
h. Additional resistance fir upward conveying in case of
inclined screw conveyors.
The various factors mentioned shall apply basically to
horizontal and slightly inclined screw conveyor. For
vertical screw conveyor there may be some other factors
also.
The total power required to run the screw conveyor is
given by: Fig. 2.3 Total deformation
Pt =
From above equation we find that 0.149 kw power
required to convey the material.
Modelling of screw conveyor is carried out using solid
works 2009.

493
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2013)
Modelling of screw conveyor is carried out using solid
works 2009.

Fig 2.4 Equivalent stress

From above figure we find that the total deformation of Fig.3.1 Shaftless Screw
conveyor is 1.93 mm and equivalent stress is 149.2 Mpa.
From the result, the total deformation and stresses are
Analysis of the model is carried out using ansys 12.1.
permissible.

III. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF SHAFTLESS SCREW

CONVEYOR
The shaftless screw conveyors open up new and special
areas of application for screw conveyance, which are
determined according to special properties of the bulk
solids. The SSC expands the screw conveyors field of
application and is used for those bulk solids, when the
usual screw conveyor cannot be used.
The principles of calculation for usual horizontal and
lightly inclined screw conveyors cannot be applied for
shaftless screw conveyor, because of considerable
differences in design, principle of work and in areas of
application [6]. Fig. 3.2 loading condition
The fill ratio of shaftless screw conveyor is usually taken
between 0.5 n f 0.9, the fill ratio in vertical shaftless Result
screw conveyors is always n f 1.0.
The volumetric ratio n v shows how much usable volume of
a trough is occupied by the volume of the shaftless screw
and can be calculated as the ratio between the screw and
the trough volume.
nv = 1 -
The mass throughput of shaftless screw conveyor are given
by[7]
Im = I V * b

Im = dT2 * * nw * lSt* nF * nV * kF * k * b

So, from equation we find that the 90 mm diameter is Fig. 3.3 Total deformation
required to convey material.

494
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2013)
Total Deformation comparison

Table II Total Deformation comparison

Total Deformation Value
Maximum Minimum
Existing Design 1.9359 mm 0 mm
Modified Design 0.17023 mm 0 mm

Total Deformation

2 1.93

Deformation mm
Fig 3.4 Equivalent stress
mm
0.17

,
From above figure we find that the total deformation of 1
conveyor is 0.17 mm and equivalent stress is 67.27 Mpa.
From the result, the total deformation and stresses are
permissible and lesser then the existing model. 0
Deformation is occurs due to transportation material as
Existing design Modified design
IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION well as the self-weight of structure. As per analysis total
From above analysis of both model we find that the deformation developed in structure is under permissible
deformation and stresses are reduce in modified model. The value.
comparisons of both model is given below. Graph of each
comparison is given. V. CONCLUSION
Stress (von-mises stress) comparison The following were derived from design, modeling and
analyzing of the both design. First, the both model
Table I Stress comparison developed in solid works 2009 software. The static model
Stress Value analysis was performed on ansys 12.1. The FEA modeling
Maximum Minimum and simulated data were generated. The stresses and
Existing Design 149.2 Mpa 0.044 Mpa deformation developed in models are permissible.
Modified Design 67.278 Mpa 0.0021 Mpa The maximum deformation and stresses of modified design
are 0.17 mm and 67.278 Mpa. So, the deformation and
Stress comparision stresses in modified design is much lesser then existing
design. We can get same output from modified design with
reduced size of conveyor. The power consumption and
150 149.2 weight of conveyor also reduce around 12% of existing
Mpa design.
Stre ss , Mpa

100
50
0 978-1-405-15825-1.
Existing design Modified design
The main cause for failure in screw conveyor is due to
generated stresses during operation.
By comparison of the results of maximum stresses it can be
easily predict that the stresses generated in the modified
design are lesser than the stresses in the existing design.
From above comparison we find that the stress is reduced
54.91%.
67.27
Mpa REFERENCES
[1] Don McGlinchey. 2008 Bulk Solids Handling: Equipment Selection
and Operation Page No. 197-219 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN:
[2] Chris Rorres 2000. THE TURN OF THE SCREW: OPTIMAL
DESIGN OF AN ARCHIMEDES SCREW,JOURNAL OF
HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING Page : 72-80
[3] Siddhartha ray 2008 , Introduction to Material Handling New age
international publication , page no 112-118
[4] IS 12960 :1990, "Determination of power requirement of screw
feeder general requirement"
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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2013)
[5] T. K. Ray, 2004 Mechanical handling of materials,Asian books
publications. pp. 92-105.
[6] Prof. Dr. Friedrich Krause 2006 Theoretical and experimental study
of horizontal and lightly inclined shaftless screw conveyors , part-2
WISSENSPORTAL baumaschine.de 3.
[7] Prof. Dr. Friedrich Krause 2006 Theoretical and experimental study
of horizontal and lightly inclined shaftless screw conveyors , part-1
WISSENSPORTAL baumaschine.de 3.
[8] www.rhengineers.tradeindia.com.

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