Bucket Elevator Belt Protection via Overlapping Cup Rear Walls
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Belt bucket elevators face issues with bulk material particles falling into gaps between the belt and rear wall, leading to potential damage and increased forces on cup attachments, especially when conveying coarse-grained materials.
Innovation Solution
The design features cups with an overhang at the lower end of their rear wall that projects beyond the bottom, sealingly extending up to the upper edge of the following bucket, ensuring overlapping coverage of the belt and preventing material penetration, with additional features like inwardly bent rear walls and reinforcement profiles to maintain engagement during rotation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If buckets are attached to the belt at a distance from one another, then the belt width can be kept accessible for monitoring devices, but bulk material particles penetrate into the gaps between buckets and belt causing damage
Solution Approach 1:
The belt width is segmented into functional zones: a central conveying zone with buckets and lateral zones without buckets for monitoring device access. This allows the belt to serve dual purposes - material conveyance and monitoring accessibility - without compromising either function
Solution Approach 2:
The cup overhang acts as an intermediary element that seals the gap between the bucket and belt without requiring the entire belt width to be covered by buckets. This intermediary structure prevents material penetration while leaving lateral areas accessible
2Reliability
If buckets are arranged in close succession with overlapping coverage, then bulk material penetration is prevented, but the belt width is reduced and monitoring access is limited
Solution Approach 1:
Different parts of the belt serve different functions: the central area has dense bucket arrangement for material containment, while lateral areas remain open for monitoring. The cup overhang provides localized sealing at critical gaps without requiring universal bucket coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The belt is segmented into a conveying zone with overlapping buckets and lateral zones for monitoring access. This spatial segmentation allows simultaneous achievement of material protection and monitoring accessibility
3Reliability
If the belt is completely covered by buckets, then material penetration is prevented and belt is protected, but the structure becomes more complex and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing function is extracted from the main bucket body and implemented as a separate cup overhang feature. This allows protection to be achieved through a simple geometric modification rather than a complete redesign of the bucket arrangement
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of covering the entire belt with buckets to achieve protection, the invention inverts the approach by using the cup overhang to seal the critical gaps, achieving protection with less extensive bucket coverage
4Ease of manufacture
If cups are arranged with distance between attachments, then manufacturing is easier, but high forces act on attachment during rotation and crushing
Solution Approach 1:
The overlapping cup arrangement provides beforehand cushioning by distributing attachment forces across multiple adjacent cups. When one cup experiences high crushing forces during rotation, the overlapping structure with adjacent cups shares the load, reducing peak forces on individual attachments
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
Figure 6~7
AI summary
The invention relates to a bucket elevator for conveying bulk material, comprising a driven endless belt (23), which is circulated via drums arranged on a bucket elevator head and on a bucket elevator base, and comprising at least one row of buckets (10), each of which is individually fixed to the belt (23) and has a base (15), a rear wall (11), lateral walls (13), and a front wall (12), said row extending in the running direction of the belt (23). The invention is characterized in that each of the buckets (10), which are arranged in close succession relative to one another, in at least one row extending in the running direction of the belt (23) has a smaller width at the base (15) than at the upper ends of the lateral walls (13), which thus extend outwards laterally. The arrangement of the buckets on the belt (23) is designed such that the belt (23), including the outer lateral edges of the belt, is completely covered by the buckets (10) arranged thereon.