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Belt Conveyor Tripper

Impact

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
517
Location
Kentucky
Occupation
Owner
I could use some ideas guys. I'm in the process of building a grain storage building. The building is 150' wide, 420' long, 24' at the eaves, with a 6:12 roof slope. On top is a doghouse 14' wide x 12' tall that houses a belt conveyor that fills the building. To get the material off the belt in the location it needs to be in, we're building a tripper system. Basically the tripper raises the belt and drops it off the side. The total length of the tripper is about 14' or so. The tripper will need to move a total of 270' from extreme to extreme. that is where I'm stuck and still trying to decide how to move the tripper. I've gone and looked at other projects with similar conveyors, but, all I've seen is some redneck designed systems. One guy stretched a cable from end to end, and took one wrap around a home made drum on a 90 degree gear motor and ran a rubber cord to a 120 v plug. I need to come up with something better than that.

One idea I'm toying with is a rack and pinion system. The rack would be mounted to the conveyor frame and a gear motor with a pinion gear on the tripper. This system gets expensive. Needs a festoon system to get power to the tripper, but, electrical isn't in my contract, so that's not a worry. I've been pricing gear racks. 6' piece is $200 plus or minus. Quick calculations budget the system at $10,000 or so. Wondering if a #60 chain and sprocket would work well enough for this application?

Another idea was a remote mounted winch and a cable system and pulleys. A good winch is budgeted at $6,000-$7,000. I don't like the idea of all the cables and pulleys.

Anyone have some ideas? I hate to resort to the redneck designed home made drum on a gear motor.
 

Dualie

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2007
Messages
1,371
Location
Nor Cal
with that kind of run i would think a chain drive would be the way to go. rack and pinion would be a real PITA.
 

lantraxco

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
7,704
Location
Elsewhen
Friction drive? Motor with a rubber tire spring loaded against some smooth metal framing should work. That's how they drive Ferris wheels. Need more torque? Add motors and wheels. Just a thought.
 

Coondog

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Messages
88
Location
Texas
Just run the conveyor like a regular conveyor system. Every place you need a tripper, install a tipping idler or return roller on an air operated cylinder. You would eliminate the need for a a tripper that runs the entire length of the belt and it works really good. We have a funnel below ours that catches material and keeps the flow consistently in one place.
 
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