As we all know that various bulk solids material exhibit
varied characteristics which makes the design and manufacturing of effective
bulk handling equipment to be quite complex. Due to such varied characteristics no particular slide gate valve or for that matter any flow
control valve is applicable for all the application. Necessary customization is
required for the manufacture of slide gate valves.
Wrong valve selection, design and configuration can result
in losses due to downtime attributable to inaccuracies and inefficiencies in
the processes resulting due to wrong selection. Major problems that can arise
are downtime, material wastage, inefficiencies in conveying, inaccurate
weighing, leakages in atmosphere leading to dusty working conditions, frequent
maintenance, etc.
Slide gate valve is specifically designed to handle dry and
free flowing bulk solids through gravity discharge from silos, hoppers, bins,
bulk bags, chutes, etc. The valve is
versatile and suited for many dry bulk solids handling applications.
Applications include shut off / cut off, control or metered material flow of
non abrasive to moderately abrasive powders. Granular material or pellets can
also be handled using slide gate valves.
One of the important application of the slide gate valve is
isolation of the feeder and silo in order to enable the maintainance of the
feeders with ease. The feeder can be rotary, belt or screw type. . In such
cases care must be taken that the slide gate valve is operated in a completely
open or completely closed condition only. In case the gate is operated in the
partially closed condition, the protruding slide plate will cause funnel flow
pattern in the silo, thereby causing flow problems.
Some times in case of belt or screw feeders it is advisable
to use rod type gate valve instead of slide gate valve. The rods can be closely spaced for the cut off operation. Although complete stoppage of bulk
material is not possible for the rod type gate valves, these sufficiently
obstruct the flow of the material.
