Minerals Beneficiation - Design Criteria for Bin Feeders

Feeders must be considered an integral part of the over-all bin and feeder system. Improper design of either one of these parts will affect the performance of the whole system. Feeder load, material properties, feed rate, physical layout, and environment as well as first cost determine the selection of feeder type. This paper provides a new method of calculating feeder loads with some experimental data as verification. General design criteria for belt and apron feeder, rotary table and plow feeders are discussed and a special section is devoted to vibratory feeders. Feeders are used to provide a means of control for the withdrawal of bulk materials from storage units such as bins, bunkers, silos and hoppers. This control function can only be performed properly as long as the bulk materials flow by gravity to the feeder in a uniform and uninterrupted fashion. During the past few years various papers have been written and presented on feeders and their application.1-9 This paper will be confined to some specific bin-feeder design criteria such as feeder load and power requirements. Special attention is given to the basic design criteria for vibratory feeders. HOPPER AND BIN DESIGN Feeders must be considered an integral part of the over-all bin and feeder system. Improper design of either one of these parts will affect the performance of the whole system. A lot of effort has been devoted in the past decade to the development of functional design criteria for hoppers and bins.1,10 The integrated concept of bin and feeder design requires quantitative analysis of the bulk material characteristics before the design and the selection of components can be attempted. The design of a feeder system must begin with the proper dimensioning of the hopper outlet to prevent arching or ratholing. The hopper opening should be large enough to allow passage of the bulk solid at the required maximum discharge rate." A feeder can only throttle the flow. FEEDER LOAD DETERMINATION Over the past ten years, there have been various attempts to determine the exact load or pressure on feeders mounted directly under hopper openings. Many designers, however, still consider this pressure equal to the hydrostatic head of material above the opening, and because such pressure would be very