How Does Bucket Elevator Conveyor Belt Work?

In the manufacturing world, it is essential to be able to move material from one location in your facility to the other. In some instances, this is relatively straightforward, and you can use a regular conveyor belt setup. However, there are other times when you need to move bulk material to a different level within your facility. Using a conveyor belt on an incline isn’t always going to work, especially if you have heavy material or a large quantity of loose goods. Instead, when you need to keep all of your bulk goods secured and lift or lower the material from one location in your facility to another, you will need to take advantage of a bulk elevator conveyor belt. This equipment makes moving just about any product to a secondary level possible, ensuring you never have to reduce your facility’s productivity.

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What is a Bucket Elevator Conveyor Belt

A bucket elevator transports material to a higher or lower point. Typically, the bucket elevator functions at a 90-degree vertical angle, but there might be times when there is an incline or decline within the conveyor system. It will depend on your production needs. 

Instead of a flat conveyor belt, the system is made up of a series of “buckets.” These can look like attached buckets, although they are made of varying materials, ranging from food-grade plastics to metals and rubber. The bucket design is intended to secure the goods and prevent any spillage.

The buckets are spaced evenly along the conveyor system so goods can be loaded into the buckets. Some conveyor systems can be controlled so you manually stop the conveyor, fill the bucket, and then activate the conveyor system. Other setups automatically run and transfer the goods to a higher or lower location. 

Based on the setup and your production needs, the buckets can be emptied onto the next conveyor system or platform, allowing the goods to continue to the next assembly point.

When is a Bucket Elevator Required?

There are different times when you might need this kind of setup. Bucket elevators are standard in Mining work. The raw material is loaded into the buckets, and the conveyor system then lifts the material out of the mine shaft and deposits it onto the following contact point. This can be another conveyor built, the rear of a truck or into a bulk bag. 

Other times, you might need a bucket elevator if your manufacturing facility does not have the square footage to handle everything on the same floor. Instead of looking for a new facility or adding to the current building, if you have a tall ceiling, you might be able to set up a secondary production level above the production floor and have a bucket elevator lift the goods in progress up to the second level. 

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Industries Bucket Elevators Can Be Used In

Indeed, there is no limit to the industries in which you can use a bucket elevator. However, you must consider some production-specific questions when setting up the elevators. 

For starters, if you work with food, you must install buckets that are food-grade safe and easy to disinfect. This is especially true if you’re working with sticky substances or liquids. Like everything else within your production facility, you will need equipment that can be easily disinfected and won’t collect debris, potentially slowing production. 

In other instances, you will need to consider the amount of weight you are dealing with. 

Bucket elevators will likely be able to handle any weight, just as long as you opt for equipment that is designed for this kind of heavy-duty setup. As with other conveyor systems, there are heavy-duty setups, and you just need to look for these kinds of industrial designs. Always keep your total weight in mind whenever ordering bucket elevator systems. 

Thankfully, you don’t have to make these decisions on your own. It doesn’t matter if you already have a bucket elevator, are looking to upgrade what you currently have set up, or are new to the world of bucket elevators and are starting from square one. The staff here at Gough Econ, Inc. is here to walk you through the process. It doesn’t matter if you know what exactly you want or need help right through completing the order; we are here for you.

Your Bucket Elevator Conveyor Belt Is a Call Away

When it comes to ordering your bucket elevator conveyor system, you will need to keep a few variables in mind. First, you’ll need to know what kind of weight you’re dealing with. Oftentimes, bucket elevators are used to move large amounts of dirt, stone, and other organic materials. This can weigh hundreds if not thousands of pounds, so you need a system designed to handle this. Other times, you will work with food and foodstuff, which means you need equipment that meets all the necessary food safety requirements set by the state and federal governments. You also want something that is easy to clean and maintain, regardless of the material you’re working with. 

Bucket elevators are often used to raise free-flowing bulk solid materials to a higher elevation in a range of industries, including chemicals, minerals, foods, wood products and wastewater treatment. As the name implies, bulk solid materials are conveyed via buckets, which are firmly attached to a belt or chain. As shown in Figure 1, each bucket gets filled as it pushes through a pile of material at the elevator’s bottom inlet (or boot) section. The buckets then travel upwards and empty at the elevator’s top (or head) section. Bucket elevators excel at conveying material upwards vertically, which most other mechanical conveyors struggle with, especially if the vertical distance exceeds 10 or 20 feet. Bucket elevators can be small or large and can convey over short or long vertical distances. One of the most common applications is filling silos — the material is moved to the top of the bucket elevator, where it falls out of the bucket into spouting, through which it flows by gravity into the silo.Continuous bucket elevators move at about half the speed of centrifugal bucket elevators, so their capacities are correspondingly lower. However, the lower speed makes them more suitable for abrasive or fragile materials. Instead of flinging material out of the bucket at the top, the slower speed allows material to fall out of the bucket by gravity right after the bucket turns over at the top. The loose material then flows past the back of the previous bucket and into the outlet chute. Most bucket elevators are unidirectional, moving material only in the vertical direction. However, a few designs use buckets that are not rigidly attached to the belt — they swivel to remain horizontal even if the belt changes direction. The buckets are then mechanically tipped at the discharge point to empty the buckets. These elevators typically form an S- or L-shaped layout in the plant.

Bucket elevator maintenance

Bucket elevators are not maintenance-free. Wear is a factor, especially since the buckets fill by pushing through a pile of material in the bottom boot. Regular maintenance and parts replacement are needed, so it is important to ensure that critical areas at the top and bottom are easily and safely accessible.Belts and chains stretch, so an adjustment or take-up is required to maintain the correct tension. Various take-up designs are available. Frequent checks of slack or proper tension are important for reliable operation. Moreover, economical instrumentation is available to monitor factors such as belt alignment, speed, bearing temperature, and material plugging. These can provide early warnings to greatly decrease downtime and increase safety.  

Bucket elevator sizing

The capacity of a bucket elevator is a function of the bucket volume and how many buckets go past in a given time. In other words, volumetric throughput equals the volume of each bucket times the linear speed of the belt divided by the bucket spacing. Gravimetric throughput equals the volumetric throughput times the bulk density of the material.Typical spacing between buckets is 2 times the bucket’s projection, which is a measurement of the distance from the bucket’s outer lip to the belt, as shown in Figure 3. 

Bucket elevator advantages

Bucket elevators are simple and reliable and are one of the most efficient methods for conveying materials vertically. They can handle a wide variety of free- to medium-flowing materials and are available in a wide range of standard sizes and capacities. While conveying rates can be small, high rates are more common, up to hundreds of tons per hour. The initial expense is reasonable since bucket elevators are built in modular designs and then assembled for the particular application. Furthermore, components are economical since designs are standardized and mass-produced. 

Bucket elevator disadvantages

Standard bucket elevators only convey in a straight direction, vertically upwards, and direction changes are not possible.