GB2113643A

GB2113643A - Bucket for bucket elevators

Info

Publication number: GB2113643A
Application number: GB08300823A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kunio Yamamoto
Original assignee: YAMAMOTO KIKAI KK
Current assignee: YAMAMOTO KIKAI KK
Priority date: 1982-01-16
Filing date: 1983-01-13
Publication date: 1983-08-10
Also published as: KR840003984U; KR860002853Y1; JPS58106312U; GB8300823D0

Abstract

A bucket for a bucket elevator has an attachment plate 2 to be attached to a chain or belt 11 of the bucket elevator, a bottom plate 3 joined to the attachment plate, and a pair of side plates 4 attached the attachment and bottom plates and defining an outer opening. The attachment and side plates extend further, in the direction of travel of the bucket, than a load normally supportable by the bottom plate 3. At least one capacity-increasing plate 6 is disposed in the outer opening and extends between the side plates 4, spaced from and substantially parallel to the bottom plate 3. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Bucket for bucket elevators The present invention relates to a bucket for use in a bucket elevator.

Buckets for use in bucket elevators include centrifugal-discharge buckets and continuous-type buckets.

Centrifugal-discharge bucket elevators are equipped with buckets which travel at a relatively high speed from a lower position (where the buckets are loaded with, e.g. scoop up, free-flowing fine material) to a higher position at which the material is thrown tangentially out of the buckets under centrifugal forces as the buckets run around a wheel. To allow the material to be discharged readily, the buckets are spaced at suitable intervals or pitches, an arrangement which however makes the capacity of the buckets small relatively to the pitches and reduces the rate of material transport per unit time.

Continuous-bucket elevators run at a relatively low speed and have buckets which are loaded typically with lump material, at a lower position and which dump the material by gravity as the buckets pass round a wheel, the bottom or back of the previous bucket serving as a discharge chute or deflection surface down which the material flows. Although the buckets are spaced closely for maximum capacity, their mechanical strength imposes a limitation on the depth of material they can pick up. Since the buckets cannot project too far from a chain or belt on which they are mounted, the rate of transport per unit time cannot be increased as desired. The only possible way to increase the amount of material than can be conveyed has been to employ a large-size bucket elevator.

The present invention sets out to provide a bucket for bucket elevators which is designed to increase the amount of material that the bucket can transport.

According to the present invention there is provided a bucket for use in a bucket elevator having an elongate bucket support, comprising an attachment plate, or plate-like portion, for mounting on the elongate bucket support, a bottom plate or plate-like portion extending from said attachment plate or plate-like portion at an angle thereto, and a pair of spaced side plates fixed to said attachment plate or portion and to said bottom plate or portion thereby to define a bucket; the attachment plate or portion and the side plates being elongate, in the direction of travel of the bucket, beyond the limit of a load carried by the bottom plate or portion, and jointly defining at their outer edges with the edge of the bottom plate or portion an outer opening, at least one capacity-increasing plate, spaced from said bottom plate or portion, being disposed in said outer opening to extend between said side plates at an angle to said attachment plate or portion.

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which embodiments of the pesent invention are shown by way of illustrative example only. In these drawings: Figure 1A is a vertical cross-sectional view of two successive conventional centrifugal-discharge buckets; Figure 1B is a vertical cross-sectional view of two successive conventional continuous-type buckets; Figure 2A is a vertical cross-sectional view of two successive centrifugal-discharge buckets according to the present invention; Figure 2B is a vertical cross-sectional view of two successive continuous-type buckets according to the present invention; Figure 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of two successive centrifugal-discharge buckets each having a pluralityofcapacity-increasing plates; and Figure 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a bucket according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figures 2A and 2B, an elevator bucket 1 comprises generally an attachment plate or platelike portion 2, a bottom plate or plate-like portion 3 including an slanted outer wall, and a pair of perpendicular side plates 4, 4. The bottom plate-like portion 3 of the centrifugal-discharge bucket as illustrated in Figure 2A merges into the plate-like attachment portion 2 by means of an integral rounded bottom part,forfacilitating material discharge. The bottom plate 3 of the continuous-type bucket 1 as shown in Figure 2B is joined to a chain or belt 11 by means of a narrow inclined transverse strip which eliminates any sharp internal corner at the junction of the attachment plate 2 and the bottom plate 3 and thus also allows material to slide smoothly out of the bucket 1.According to the invention, the bucket 1 is in each instance longer (in the vertical direction) than the conventional bucketsand has in each instance an outer opening 5 defined between capacity-increasing plate 6 extending between the side plates 4,4 and inclined to lie substantially parallel to the bottom plate or plate-like portion 3. Each bucket may however have two or more capacity-increasing plates 6 and can then carry more material than that loaded in the bucket 1 having a single capacity-increasing plate 6. For example, in the embodiment shown in Figure 3, each bucket has three parallel capacity-increasing plates 6.

As illustrated in Figure 4, the bottom plate 3 and the capacity-increasing plate 6 are each lined at their respective upper edge with a reinforcement plate 7 extending laterally between the side plated 4,4 to protect the respective plates 3 and 6 against being bent or curved due to forces exerted when scooping material 10. The attachment plate or plate-like portion 2 as shown in Figure 7 has attachment holes 8 through which it may be secured to the chain or belt 11 by suitable fasteners (not shown).

Assuming that the buckets of the present invention and those according to the prior art have the same pitch, width and projection, and run at the same speed, their relative work capacity in unit time is related as the ratio between the cross-sectional areas as sectioned in the travel direction, of a stable load in each bucket, as shown in each case by interrupted section lines. Comparison between the loaded prior art centrifugal-discharge bucket of Figure 1A and the loaded centrifugal-discharge bucket of Figure 2A indicates that the area below the dot-dash line (extending substantially centrally in the bucket 1 shown in Figure 2A) is equal to the area below the dot-dash top line shown in Figure 1A.

Thus the area above the dot-dash line of Figure 2A represents an additional capacity that can be carried by the bucket of Figure 2A. With the pitch P, ie. the distance between successive buckets, being equal in each case the bucket 1 of Figure 2A can transport about twice as much material as the bucket of Figure 1A. Where more of the capacity-increasing plates 6 are employed (as illustrated in Figure 3) the amount of material that can be conveyed is more than twice that transported by the bucket of Figure 1A.

The continuous-type bucket 1 shown in Figure 2B is of a unit capacity nearly double that of the prior continuous-type bucket illustrated in Figure 1 B. The buckets 1 of Figure 2B are spaced at a longer pitch p'.

However the bucket elevator of Figure 2B can still transport a quantity of material which is 20% greater than the amount of material which can be conveyed by the bucket elevator shown in Figure 1 B. Employing more capacity-increasing plates 6 on the bucket elevator of Figure 2B can again increase the capacity of the bucket elevator.

As shown in Figures 2A, 2B and 3, the fine lump material 10 as loaded in the buckets 1 is discharged in the direction of the arrow Q along the bottom plate 3 and the capacity-increasing plate 6 by the tangential force applied around an upper wheel of the bucket elevator. The material is dumped through the outer opening 5 and an upper opening 9 (Figure 4) in the bucket 1 and via a chute into a container for further transportation.

The bucket according to the present invention is highly advantageous in that a continuous-type bucket can increase its capacity by 50% or more, and the centrifugal-discharge bucket can increase its capacity by 80% or more simply by enlarging its vertical dimension and adding a capacity-increasing plate or plates. Since moreover the buckets of the present invention can replace conventional buckets on an existing bucket elevator, the resulting bucket elevator is inexpensive to construct.

Claims

1. A bucketfor use in a bucket elevator having an elongate bucket support, comprising an attachment plate, or plate-like portion, for mounting on the elongate bucket support, a bottom plate or plate-like portion extending from said attachment plate or plate-like portion at an angle thereto, and a pair of spaced side plates fixed to said attachment plate or portion and to said bottom plate or portion thereby to define a bucket; the attachment plate or portion and the side plates being elongate, in the direction of travel of the bucket, beyond the limits of a load carried by the bottom plate or portion and jointly defining at their outer edges with the edge of the bottom plate or portion an outer opening, at least one capacity-increasing plate, spaced from said bottom plate or portion, being disposed in said outer opening to extend between said side plates at an angle to said attachment plate or portion.

2. A bucket according to claim 1, wherein said capacity-increasng plate extends substantially parallel to said bottom plate or portion.

3. A bucket according to claim 1 or 2 wherein three parallel capacity-increasing plates are disposed in said outer opening.

4. A bucket according to claim 1, 2 or 3 including a reinforcement plate attached to said bottom plate or portion, and to the or each capacity-increasing plate, along an upper edge thereof in each case.

5. A bucket as claimed in claim 1 and substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 2A, 2B, 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.

6. A bucket elevator comprising buckets as claimed in any one preceding claim.