CHAPTER NINE

SCREW CONVEYORS
10.1 Introduction
The screw conveyor, one of the oldest and simplest methods used for the movement of bulk
materials, consists of a long-pitch plate-steel helix mounted on a shaft or spindle carried in
bearings within a U-shaped trough. As the element rotates, the material fed to it is moved
forward by the thrust of the lower part of the helix and is discharged through openings in the
trough bottom or at the end.

Fig.10.1 Horizontal Screw Conveyor

The movement of the materials is forced through the trough by a rotating screw (Fig.10.1),
which is formed by a helical blade attached to the drive shaft 8 which is coupled to a drive 1and
supported by end bearings 2,6 and by inner bearings 4. The trough 7 of the round-bottom shape
is topped by a cover plate 3 with an opening 5 for loading the conveyor. A similar unloading
opening 9 is provided in the bottom of the trough. The loading and unloading points can be
located anywhere along the trough.
10.2 Conveyor Components
a. The Conveyor Screw
This is the rotating part of the screw conveyor which imparts smooth and positive motion to the
bulk material being conveyed. It consists of spiral flying mounted on a pipe and is made either
right or left hand to suit the screw rotation and the desired direction of material travel.

Fig.10.2 Typical Screw Configurations: (a) Helical Spiral (b) Ribbon Spiral
(c) Cut Flights
 Screw Conveyors 198
____________________________________________________________________________________

b. The Drive Shaft, End Shaft and Coupling

The drive shaft supports the conveyor screw section and keeps it in alignment. The end shaft
is located at the end opposite the drive shaft. Couplings are used to connect successive
conveyors screw section when more than one section is necessary to make up the total length
of conveyor. The shaft and coupling are secured in the conveyor screw by coupling bolts as
shown in Fig.10.3.

Fig.10.3 Installing Screw Section in Trough and Fitting it onto Coupling

c. The End Seals
The plate seal (Fig.10.4a) is an economical, effective sealing device, designed for exterior
mounting between the end bearing and the trough end. Standard units employ lip type seals to
contact the shaft but other types of commercial seal cartridges also may be used. The seal plate
and the end bearing are bolted to the trough end by one set of bolts. Split gland seals (Fig.10.4b)
are designed for interior or exterior mounting. They provide a seal which is effective for many
applications. The universal type of seal (fig.10.4c) is arranged for use with waste packing or
with cartridge type lip or felt seals. An opening at the top of the seal housing facilitates waste
repacking, and exposes the waste for oiling. The packing seal housing is mounted outside the
trough and between it and the end bearing.
Packing gland seals (Fig.10.4d) are effective means for sealing the conveyor both internally and
externally. This seal also is sometimes suitable for pressure or vacuum service. The packing
pressure is adjusted by the gland bolts. Air purge shaft seals (Fig.10.4e) are arranged for
attaching to standard or special trough ends. A constant air pressure is maintained to prevent
material from escaping from the trough along the shaft. The air purge seal is desirable for
sealing highly abrasive materials.

(a) (b) (c)

 Screw Conveyors 199
____________________________________________________________________________________

(d) (e)
Fig.10.4 Various End Seals
d. The Conveyor Complete with the Trough and the Drive
The trough is the enclosure in which the material is confined and guided in its movement. A
shaft mounted speed reducer makes a simple and compact drive combination.
Typical Drive Arrangements
Screw conveyors are not limited to conveying horizontally. With specialised design the unit may
operate at a slope or in the vertical position. There could be many drive arrangements to meet
the practical limitation like space, type of drive, etc. Some of the drive arrangements are
presented in Fig.10.5 below.

Fig.10.5 Typical Drive Arrangements: (a) Vertical (b) Horizontal and Vertical
(c) Steep Slop
10.3 Typical Applications
Screw conveyors serve a wide variety of purpose in many industries. Some of the application
areas are:
1. When the materials are extremely hot, cast screws and troughs may be used or the
screws and troughs may be made of high temperature alloy metals.
2. If the materials are sticky or viscous, ribbon flight screws may be the choice.
Furthermore, special coatings applied to the screw and troughs may also aid the flow
of the material.
 Screw Conveyors 200
____________________________________________________________________________________

3. When extremely abrasive materials are to be conveyed they may require screws and
troughs made of abrasion resistant metals or the screws may be provided with hard
surface flights.
4. When the materials are corrosive it may be desirable to make the conveyor screws and
troughs of stainless steel, Monel metal, nickel, aluminium, etc.
5. When the materials are to be mixed or aerated a conveyor screw of ribbon flights or cut
flights or one of these combined with paddles may be used to obtain the desired
results.
6. If materials are to be heated or cooled, which conveying they may require jacketed
troughs arranged for circulating heating or cooling media.
7. When contaminable materials are handled they may require self lubricated bearings,
screw and trough construction which will eliminate pockets, creels, etc.
10.4 Design Considerations
The trough is commonly fabricated from flat sheet from 2 and 8mm thick. The screw pitch t =
(0.5 to 1.0) D, where D is the screw diameter. The screw diameter D is governed by the lump
size, being at least twelve times that for loads of uniform lump size and at least four times the
maximum lump size in case of unsized bulk materials.
The screw speed is influenced by the nature of load and screw diameter, increasing inversely
with the bulk weight, screw diameter and the intensity of abrasive action of the material.
Conveyors handling heavy materials operate at around 50rpm and those designed to convey
light loads, at up to 150rpm.
The cross-sectional loading of a screw conveyor is given by
 d2
A = (10.1)
4
where  = the capacity factor which take account of the accumulation of
load at inner bearing (Table 10.1)
D = screw diameter
Table 10.1 Values Capacity Factor
Material 
Heavy-weight abrasive loads 0.125
Heavy-weight mildly abrasive 0.250
Light-weight mildly abrasive 0.320
Light-weight non abrasive 0.400
The hourly capacity can be calculated by
Q = 3.6 A v k tons/hr (10.2)
where k is a factor introduced in designing inclined conveyors(Table10.2)
v = the speed of the conveyor [m/s]
 = specific weight of the material [kg/m3]
Table 10.2 Values of k corresponding the Inclination 
 (degrees) 0 5 10 15 20
k 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.75
The speed of the conveyor
 Screw Conveyors 201
____________________________________________________________________________________

tn
v= (10.3)
60
where t = pitch of the screw (lead) [m]
n = rpm of the screw
The capacity formula can be rewritten,
 2 tn
Q = 3600 D  k
4 60

 47  t  n  D 2  k   (10.4)
From practical experience,
n = 60/ D for light non abrasiveload
n = 45/ D for heavy non abrasiveload
n = 30/ D for heavy abrasiveload
The power requirement in kW at the drive shaft for horizontal conveyors,
QL
N h  C0 (10.5)
367
where N h = power requirement for horizontal conveyor
C o = friction factor (Table 10.3)
L = conveyor length [m]
and for sloping installation
QH QL
Ns   C0 (10.6)
367 367
where N s = power requirement for inclined conveyor
H = level difference
Load per meter [kg/m]
Q
q= (10.7)
3.6 ν
Axial force, P [kg]
Mo
P (10.8)
r tan   
102N o  60
Mo 
2n
N
 975 0 kgm (10.9)
n
where M 0 = the resisting moment
N 0 = N h for horizontal conveyor
= N s for inclined conveyor
r = radius at which the force P is applied r  0.7 to 0.8  
D
2
 = reduced friction angle, tan  = 
 = screw helix angle
 Screw Conveyors 202
____________________________________________________________________________________

The friction factor C o is adopted based on experimental data.

Table 10.3 Friction Factor C o
Material Co
Flour, cereal, saw dust 1.2
Peat, Soda ash, pulverised coal, finely ground chalk 1.6
Coal (lump anthracite and bituminous, air dry brown), rock salt 2.5
Gypsum, dry clay, sand, cement, ash, lime, moulding sand 4.0
Example10.1.
Calculation of a Screw Conveyor
Design a horizontal screw conveyor to meet the following conditions.
- material to be conveyed: moulding sand
- required capacity: Q =35 tons/hr
- the conveying run length: L = 20m
- bulk weight of the material:  = tons/m3
Solution:
1. Main parameters of the conveyor. Considering that the material is heavy and abrasive, we
take the trough loading efficiency  = 0.125 and the screw pitch t  0.8 D . Hence, shaft
speed will also be low, i.e. n  37.5 rpm. A reducer with two spur gear pairs will suit the
purpose.
Substituting t  0.8 D in equation 10.4, we obtain:
4Q 4  35
D3 3
60  0.8  n     k 60  3.14  0.8  37.5  0.125  1.65  1
 0.495m  0.5m.
2. Required power. The resistance to motion factor for moulding sand being Co  4 , we
determine the power required on the screw shaft from equation 10.5:

QL 35  20
N h  C0  4  7.7 kW
367 367
Taking the efficiency of the reducer with two spur gears   0.9 , the required motor power
will be
N 7 .7
N h   8.5kW
 0 .9
The torque transmitted by the electric motor to the screw shaft is obtained from equation
10.9:
N 7 .7
M o  975 0  975  200kgm
n 37.5
3. Load propulsion rate ( t  0.8 D  0.8  0.5  0.4m ), and from equation 10.3
tn 0.4  37.5
v   0.25m / sec.
60 60
4. The load per meter of conveyor length is obtained from equation 10.7:
 Screw Conveyors 203
____________________________________________________________________________________

Q 35
q=   38.8 kg / m.
3.6 ν 3.6  0.25
5. Axial force along the screw: this can be obtained from equation 10.8 as
D 0 .5
r  0.8   0 .8   0.2 m.
2 2
  380 40'  f  0.8  ,   17 0 40'
hence,
Mo 200
P   660 kg .
r tan    0.2  1.5
The shaft is subjected to a complex load made up of
1. the torque with moment M 0 ;
2. tension (compression) by force P;
3. the bending effort between bearings due to the own weight;
4. the transverse component acting on the screw surface and screw edge, and
5. the longitudinal force on this section exerted eccentrically on the turns.
Since not all of these forces can be determined precisely, the calculation for the strength of the
components is usually simplified by estimating according to M 0 and P.
10.5 Review Questions
1. Describe a screw conveyor and its basic components
2. State the typical applications of a screw conveyor.
3. Discuss the different drive arrangement in screw conveyors.
4. What considerations are taken in designing a screw conveyor?
5. Design a screw conveyor to meet the following conditions.
- material to be conveyed; coal
- required capacity; 10 tons/hr
- length of the conveyor; 12 m
- arrangement; inclined (150)