What Is a Drag Conveyor?
As the name implies, material is dragged along the conveyor by either a single chain or multiple chains with a paddle. At many industrial plants, it’s crucial to be able to move bulk material quickly and reliably. Whether you’re dealing with cement, clinker, lime, coal, wood chips, phosphate, food waste, grains, or ash, a dependable conveyor is a must to keep things up and running. There are many different types of conveyors to choose from, and the best one for a given situation is usually determined by the type of material that needs to be conveyed and the distance it needs to move. One of the more popular options is a drag conveyor, which is sometimes referred to as a drag chain, drag flight, or en-masse conveyor.
How Do Drag Conveyors Function?
The operation of a drag conveyor is fairly simple. A motor drives a single- or double-stranded chain of paddles or “flights,” which drag materials through the channel. Drag conveyors are most often horizontal, though they can be inclined if they have specially designed paddles. They can also be partially or fully enclosed, and the large paddles allow for the movement of sizeable quantities of material while requiring minimal power. The gaps between the paddles also make the top-loading of materials easy. Common drag conveyors consist of two drag chains pulling evenly spaced paddles. En-masse drag conveyors utilize a single chain in the middle with paddles on both sides, which allows them to utilize maximum space in the conveyor and, therefore, handle larger volumes of material.
Drag conveyors are ideal for dry materials that flow easily, such as grains, cement, wood chips, siftings, and ash. They are popular for many different industries, including power and utilities, chemical, construction, and agriculture.
Materials Handling Equipment
If your company is in the market for a drag conveyor, why settle for a prefabricated option when you can have a custom conveyor manufactured to your specifications by Materials Handling Equipment (MHE). We’ve been meeting the needs of companies from a wide array of industries since 1927 and offer a level of expertise that the competition can’t match. With special wear-resistant alloys, internal Ni-Hard gravity take-up bearings, and custom-engineered drive components, our heavy-duty conveyors are engineered to withstand the most extreme conditions imaginable. In fact, we’re proud to say that many conveyors we’ve built are still in daily operation more than a half-century after delivery.
Get Started Today
If you’re interested in having a custom drag conveyor manufactured for your plant, contact MHE today. We’ll meet with your engineers to discuss your needs and goals and survey your site so we can fabricate a conveyor that fits perfectly into its planned space. Upon delivery and installation, we’ll make sure your team is trained on its operation, and we’ll be standing by 24/7 should an issue ever arise.