Screw Conveyor
Screw Conveyor
Screw conveyors, also called auger or helix conveyors, use a helical shaft rotating within a trough or tube. As the screw rotates, the flights push materials through the tube. Screw conveyors are commonly used in agriculture for handling grain, in food processing plants to move dry ingredients, and in wastewater treatment plans for handling grit and dewatered sludges.
While they are less common than belt conveys, screw conveyors do have potential uses at composting facilities, from handling of feedstocks and amendments to moving, elevating, and loading finished products. Screw conveyors are suitable for handling dry and semidry materials such as sawdust and fine wood chips, and excessively wet materials like biosolids and food residuals. One benefit of screw conveyors in these applications is that the material can be completely enclosed which reduces dust and/or spillage. Screw conveyors can also be set at any angle from horizontal to vertical (although their efficiency generally declines as the angle increases) which allows for more flexibility than conveyor belts when laying out and installing processing equipment.
