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Bucket elevator
4 Sizing elements
4.1 Introduction
- Bucket elevators are designed from a wide range of options such as height, bucket width, speed and other
construction details based on the material to be transported and the required capacity.
- They are also arranged in modules to define more effectively the required working height.
4.2 Preliminary data
- Informations you need to know to be able to size an elevator are:
- Material to elevate:
* Type of material
* Bulk density kg/m3
* Percentage of moisture
* Percentage oil or grease
* Temperature in C
* Particle size distribution (preferably Rosin-Rammler-Bennett) - Maximum size and proportion
- Height to elevate in meters (a plan is welcome)
- Capacity in t/h (possibly provide a higher capacity for future optimization of the circuit)
- Type of elevator
- Drive type of the buckets (chains or belt)
- In cases of this presentation, we can already provide the following information:
* Material: cement
* Bulk Density: 1000-1400 kg/m3
* Temperature: 100-120 C
* Size: analysis to carry out, but maximum size are uncrushed grains of 6-8mm coming from the ball mill
* Band centrifugal discharge elevator with belt
* Load of the buckets by dredging
4.3 Choice of the width of the bucket
- The main bucket elevators suppliers propose tables giving the width of the buckets recommended for a given
capacity.
- This capacity is always by volume, i.e. in m3/h.
- We must therefore convert the capacity in t/h with the following formula:

With:
Q = Capacity in volume in m3/h
C = Mass capacity in t/h
= Bulk density in t/m3
- The tables found in the brochures of suppliers can be simplified (belt width, capacity) or more complete.
- The table here below is the result of data from multiple suppliers and provides the following parameters:
* Bucket width in mm
* Bucket pitch in mm
* Pulley diameter in mm
* Volume of bucket in dm3
* Bucket speed in m/s
* Capacity in m3/h or t/h
- Example of table:

- Notes on this table:

* Made for a cement with 1200 kg/m3 bulk density
* Capacity in t/h
* Capacity for a bucket load factor of 70%
- The calculator of course allows to introduce another density and another load factor.
4.4 Volume of bucket
- Given the multitude of different forms a bucket can have, it is difficult to know exactly the useful volume

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- Given the multitude of different forms a bucket can have, it is difficult to know exactly the useful volume
of a given bucket except where this volume is given in the supplier's tables.
- Anyway, it is difficult to find and the volume and all the dimensions of the bucket in order to check or do
a calculation himself.
- One can imagine a typical bucket and define with reasonable accuracy in terms of volume the three main
dimensions:
* Width
* Projection
* Useful height
- Here is a scheme of the typical bucket:

- The volume calculation is done from the illustration below:

- Dimensions:
* Projection = p
* Useful height = h
* Width= l
- Volume calculation:

As the area of the triangle 2 is equal to half of the rectangle 1, we have:

In this case, the useful height and the projection are equal.
- From this case, we can imagine the reconstitution of the sample table above.
- The result would be the following table:

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4.5 Buckets pitch
- The pitch between buckets is generally equal to the height multiplied by two or three.
- But we have seen in previous examples, the choice of manufacturers can be very different.
4.6 Belt speed
- For cement, the belt speed is typically between 1 and 2 m/s.
- One can also calculate the speed with the following formula:

With:
v = Belt speed in m/s
N = Buckets number (or rows of buckets)
P = Buckets pitch in m
- The selected speed must approach the recommended values by modifying the pitch.
- In practice the belt speed is adjusted by the manufacturers depending on the experience they have acquired
for different types of materials.
4.7 Capacity calculation
- The capacity of above table were calculated using the following formula:

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 With:
C = Mass capacity in t/h
Tr = Bucket filling degree (here, 70%)
V = Bucket volume in dm3
= Bulk density in t/m3
v = Speed belt in m/s
P = Buckets pitch in m
- The table below is taken from a manufacturer of buckets and the last column (bucket capacity in dm3) was
calculated with the formula above.

- We can make several observations:

* From a desired bucket width 1000 mm, we choose 1 row of 2 buckets of 500 mm side by side.
* From 1800 mm, a row of 3 cups of 600 mm is adopted
* The belt speed is the same for all widths
* The pitch between buckets is the same for all widths and lower in most cases than the pitch of the previous table.
* The capacity of the bucket is lower than the one of the previous table.
Because the pitch is small (305 mm), we can assume that the heights are also small.
* Despite this reduced capacity, flow rates are equivalent because the pitch is lower and the speed is higher.
- In conclusion, we can say that there is a very large range of solutions offered by the manufacturers.
- Here below the dimension table used in the calculator:

4.8 Drive pulley diameter

- A general formula exists to calculate the diameter of the drive pulley of the belt of the elevator.
That is:

With:
Dp = Pulley diameter in m
v = Speed belt in m/s
g = 9,81 m/sec
- At low speeds, the calculated diameter is often too small and we must adapt to allow normal operation, if not,
it is necessary to increase the speed and also the pitch between buckets.
- In the calculator, average values were selected based on the width of the buckets:

- The pulley rotation speed is calculated by the following equation:

With:
V p = Pulley speed in t/min
v = Speed belt in m/s
Dp = Pulley diameter in m
- The selected speed must be close of the recommended values by modifying the pitch.
- In practice the belt speed is adjusted by the manufacturers depending on the experience they have acquired
for different types of materials.
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4.9 Belt length
- The total length of the belt is as follows:

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 - The total length of the belt is as follows:

With:
L = Total length of the belt in m
H = Height of the elevator between the axes of pulleys in m
Dp = Pulley diameter in m
- From the length, we can calculate the number of rows/buckets we need:

With:
N r = Number of rows (or buckets if no duplication/tripling)
L = Total length of the belt in m
P = Buckets pitch in m
4.10 Belt plies number
- This number varies according to the projection size of the buckets.
- For cement and other similar materials, this number varies between 4 and 8 layers.
4.11 Force applied to the belt
- The formula for calculating the force in the calculator is:

With:
F = Force in kg
C = Mass capacity in t/h
v = Speed belt in m/s
H = Height of the elevator between the axes of pulleys in m
H0 = Height of correction corresponding to 7,6 m for the cement
4.12 Tension applied to the belt
- It is given by the following formula:

With:
T = Tension in N/mm
F = Force in kg
g = 9,81 m/sec
l = Belt width in mm
4.13 Power of the elevator
- The absorbed power is calculated by:

With:
N e = Absorbed power of the elevator in kW
F = Force in kg
v = Speed belt in m/s
= Motor efficiency

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