PNEUMATIC CONVEYING VS MECHANICAL CONVEYING “TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME”

“Go the distance”
“What distance?” (Ray)
“Go the distance”

-- The Voice to Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella in Universal Pictures 1989 Film “Field of Dreams”

One of the Great things about working for a pneumatic conveying company is that every day, every application is different. Oh sure, there are similarities and learning experiences to apply to the next job, but each application and customer are (at least to some extent) unique. That being said, some questions from customers tend to get asked repeatedly.

One of those questions is usually “How fast can you get it there” or “What size stuff do I need to get X amount of material there in Y minutes”. While good questions, the answers aren’t always as simple as you might think at first glance (sort of like “Is this Heaven?” “No it’s Iowa”), and sometimes aren’t even the right question to ask. Sometimes the question should be “Am I better off conveying this mechanically or pneumatically?”

Let me start first with a disclosure: I work for a pneumatic conveying company. It helps pay my bills to sell pneumatic conveying equipment and has for the last 18 years of my life. That being said, sometimes, it’s not the right answer for a given application.

In most cases, if your rate is < 2,000 lbs./hour or if you are conveying < 50 feet with 2 or fewer changes in direction, mechanical conveyors are going to make more sense. Things like flex augers, buckets elevators, aeromechanical/tubular drag conveyors can handle these applications well, with less cost and lower head room requirements. Additionally, if you are at the other end of the spectrum, and you want to convey more than 60 tons and hour, or you want to convey more than 1,000 feet in distance, more often than not, pneumatic conveying is going to be cost prohibitive both in terms of equipment and energy/Horsepower required. Unless you own your own power plant, most companies don’t want to operate 500+ HP blowers/compressors to run their conveying system. Long drag/belt conveyors or use of intermediate bulk storage transfer (i.e. bulk bags or Gaylords) can make much more sense, even if they are more manually intensive.

If, however, you fall in between these 2 extremes, pneumatic conveying can offer many advantages of which:

Ease of routing, low comparative maintenance and modular flexibility are only a few. All these are great things…if they make sense in terms of the overall scope. And while not as risky as building a baseball field in the Iowa corn, it can still make you have second thoughts about something that could create additional, unneeded costs instead of saving them.

“So when the day comes to settle down, 
Who’s to blame if you’re not around?
You took the long way home, 
You took the long way home.”

- Supertramp

For more information about Pneumatic Conveying Systems Click Here.

Larry Eagan – Regional Sales Manager