What Kind of Maintenance Does a Tubular Drag Conveyor Require?

January 12, 2021 7:31 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

One common question we receive from customers who use tubular drag conveyors concerns what sort of maintenance they can expect to have to perform on the equipment, and how often they’ll need to do so.

Here’s an overview of what you should know about the maintenance of these conveyor components in Lubbock, TX. Contact an expert to learn more.

What you should know

The most important piece of maintenance you should perform on a tubular drag conveyor is cutting off excess slack from the chain. Over an extended period of time, the constant articulation of the chain on the conveyor will result in increased space between the hinge pins and links, which causes the chain to become longer. Most of the conveyor machines will have a manual jack screw take-up mechanism, which allows you to change the location of the sprocket (typically an idler sprocket). Doing so allows you to remove the excess slack.

Once the slide plate that supports the sprocket gets to the end of its travel around the conveyor, you can then send it back to its home position with links removed from the chain.

Of course, there are other issues that can pop up in tubular drag conveyors over extended periods of use. Replacing the discs is another task you’ll need to perform on a semi-regular basis.

It can be very difficult to predict the flight life, as each conveyor’s potential for wear and tear can be influenced by several factors, including the number of bends, the length, the duty cycle, the extent to which you keep up with preventative maintenance and the behavior of the material (lubricant or abrasive). You can expect the average set of flights to last two years before you need to replace them.

In most cases, flights are designed to be worn down, versus the conveyor bends and pipe, which are not. These flights, like the chains we’ve already discussed, are individually serviceable and may be replaced a couple times before you need to replace the chain assembly as a whole. Expect to change the gearbox lubricant every 35,000 hours on average, though you should make sure to read the manufacturer’s specifications that come in your instruction manual.

Finally, it’s important to note that while tubular drag conveyors will clean out quite well, there may be small amounts of materials that get left in lower bends. The amount of that leftover material will vary depending on the conveyor’s size, the condition of your flights and the viscosity or fluidity of the material, but you may find it necessary to manually discharge these materials from time to time to keep the system in proper working condition.

If you have further questions about the wear and tear of belt conveyor parts in Lubbock, TX and the kinds of maintenance you need to perform on them to keep the system functioning smoothly, we encourage you to contact a trusted supplier of conveyor parts, like M.B. McKee Company, Inc. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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