Bucket elevator is continuous conveyor used to vertically conveys all kinds of bulk materials. A bucket elevator can elevate a variety of bulk materials from light to heavy and from fine to large lumps.
Bucket elevators are considered similar to conveyor belts, with the greatest difference being that bucket elevators move material using buckets attached to a rotating belt or chain. The buckets work to pick up material, move it to the desired endpoint, discharge material, and finally return to the starting point to pick up a new load. Bucket elevators provide a very efficient means to vertically convey products like grain, seed, edible products, pellets, powders and many other industrial applications for free-flowing, dry material.
The principle of operation is similar in all bucket elevators, however, there can be significant differences in belt speeds, the type of cups used, belting types and the rating of the drives and bearings being used. Each application is different. Bucket elevator systems are a simple and reliable method of transferring bulk product from one production process to another. A bucket elevator can elevate a variety of bulk materials from light to heavy and from fine to large lumps.
A bucket elevator has a top station (with a drive shaft, motor, and gear drive) and a bottom return-end station. The steel elevator shafts in which the buckets are moved up and down between the redirecting stations are referred to as “shafts”, “trunking“ or “bucket elevator legs”.
In a bucket elevator, V-shaped buckets made of steel or plastic are attached to a pulling element that moves in a continuous loop, i.e., a roller chain (in chain-driven bucket elevators) or a belt (in belt-driven bucket elevators). These buckets continuously are loaded with material by means of hoppers or chutes. The material is then conveyed upwards and is tipped into a discharge chute behind the top redirecting station.
Depending on their overall width, their bucket capacity, and the height that must be traversed, bucket elevators can require a large amount of power.