What Is a Screw Conveyor?

Screw conveyors, also known as worm conveyors or spiral conveyors, transport material over a flat or inclined plane.

A screw conveyor moves a regulated volume of material from the inlet point to an outlet point. Material at the inlet is regulated based on the size and horsepower of the conveyor.

Screw conveyors are rated by the diameter of the screws and the machines’ capacity over time. One of their most important tasks is breaking up lumps in the material they’re working with.

These conveyors transport many different types of material: from dry to wet, small grains to rocks.

How Do Screw Conveyors Work?

Screw conveyors use flighting, or helical screw blades that rotate, to transport granular or liquid materials through a trough or tube.

This technology is based on the principle of the Archimedes screw, which have been used to transport water and other materials for more than 2,500 years.

Today, many industries, from agriculture to food processing, use screw conveyors.

Farmers use the modern screw auger with very few moving parts to transport grain to or from bins, grain carts, or trucks, miners use screw conveyors to transport minerals from dig sites to storage bins for processing, and chemical workers use screw conveyors to safely convey toxic substances from one application to the next.

10 Advantages of Screw Conveyors

1. Versatile
2. Efficient Mixer
3. Bi-Directional: Using right and left-hand flights
4. Readily Reversible
5. Handles High Temperatures
6. Moves Abrasive Materials
7. Flood Loaded to regulate feed downstream
8. Small to Large Lump Size
9. Totally Enclosed
10. Multiple Inlets or Discharges

Custom Screw Conveyors at Reinke & Schomann

Reinke & Schomann, Inc. proudly provides the engineering and manufacturing of custom screw conveyors for use in metal chip removal, bulk material handling, machine tools, off-road equipment, food processing equipment, and sludge conveyors.

We are experienced fabricators of various types of screws including:

• Centerless
• Pipe or tube mounted
• Solid Shaft mounted

We also produce screw conveyor styles such as:

• horizontal,
• incline
• tapered shaft
• tapered O.D.
• variable pitch
• non-standard diameters.

Features including trough liners, wear resistant troughs, and wear shoes are available.

We also have the ability to provide standard and special bearings, custom fabricated troughs, and standard and special drives.

Our experts will build to customer designs, or create individual components ready to plug into systems, or engineered to fit within existing systems.

Screws can be constructed from a range of materials including:

• mild steel
• stainless steel
• abrasion resistant alloys
• Inconel
• nickel alloys

All production takes place in-house, employing advanced machinery and methods to perform bending, high definition plasma cutting, certified welding, plate forming and rolling, and angle rolling processes.

Our crane has a lifting capacity of 10 tons. We can hold tight tolerances exceeding CEMA standards, which are held throughout fabrication.

Screws can be treated for resistance to abrasion, corrosion, and heat, and finishing including flame spray, galvanizing, hard surfacing, and custom painting is available.

For more information about our custom screw machine manufacturing, or the other value-added services we offer, please see the table below or contact us directly.