Heating Screw Conveyor
A heating screw conveyor moves bulk material and heats it at the same time. Thermal oil, steam or hot water circulates through hollow flights, the shaft and a jacketed trough, so heat reaches the product through every surface it touches. U.S. plants use these screw heaters to dry, preheat, melt, evaporate moisture from, or start a reaction in materials such as petroleum coke, filter cake, sewage sludge, polymer powders, biomass and fine dusts.
Sticky products can coat the flights and act as insulation. For those applications we offer a self-cleaning twin-shaft design: intermeshing hollow flights wipe each other clean, so the heat transfer surface stays bare and the unit holds its rated duty.
Units range from pilot sizes of a few pounds per hour up to about 66 short tons/h (60 t/h). Pre-installed piping with modular insulation, valves, flow meters and temperature instruments can be included, so the system ties into a single utility inlet and outlet on site.
Heating Screw Conveyor - Benefits
A heating screw conveyor combines bulk material conveying and indirect thermal processing in one compact unit. Hollow-flight technology gives a large heat transfer area, which cuts energy use, floor space and processing time.
Efficient Heat Transfer −
Hollow flights add heat transfer surface for fast, even heating of bulk solids.
Conveying and Heating in One Unit +
Reduced Energy Consumption +
Reliable Product Quality +
Long Service Life +
Compact Process Solution +
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Contact us todayHeating Screw Conveyor - Features
The heating screw conveyor circulates a heating medium through hollow screw flights, delivering indirect heat while it conveys. Each unit is engineered around your product, target temperature and plant layout.
- Hollow-Flight Heat ExchangeHollow screw flights for efficient heat transfer.
- Single or Twin Screw DesignSingle- or twin-shaft configurations.
- Multiple Heating OptionsRuns on thermal oil, steam, hot water or electric heat.
- Self-Cleaning TechnologySelf-cleaning option prevents buildup on flights.
- Modular Insulation & PipingIntegrated insulation, piping, valves and sensors.
- Custom Engineered DesignCapacities up to 66 short tons/h (60 t/h).
How a Heating Screw Conveyor Handles Thermal Expansion
Hot shafts grow in length. Our design absorbs that thermal expansion with dedicated carbon bearings that need very little maintenance. Tongue-shaped shaft passages let a single screw be pulled and replaced without removing the end wall or the other shafts, which keeps outages short.
Heating Media and Process Integration
The screw heater can run on thermal oil, saturated or superheated steam, hot water or electric heat, so it fits the utilities your plant already has. Typical duties include drying wet solids, preheating feed to a kiln, mixer or reactor, melting or softening a product, and driving off solvents or moisture.
Looking for a Reliable Heating Screw Conveyor?
Our experts can help you select the right heating screw conveyor solution for your material and production requirements.
Uniform Heating of Powders, Granules and Pastes
Because the product is turned over continuously, every particle sees the heated surfaces. The result is an even outlet temperature and repeatable quality from batch to batch. For complete thermal lines, the heater pairs with a cooling screw conveyor downstream or a petroleum coke preheater in anode plants.
Sizing a Heating Screw Conveyor for Your Process
To size a unit, our engineers need the throughput in lb/h or tons/h, the inlet and target outlet temperatures in °F, moisture content, bulk density, and the heating medium available. With that data we calculate the required heat transfer area and recommend a single- or twin-shaft layout.
Frequently Asked Questions
A heating screw conveyor is a combined conveying and thermal processing machine. It heats, dries, melts or thermally treats bulk material while moving it through a trough, using heated hollow flights and a heated shaft.
A heating medium such as thermal oil, steam or hot water flows through the hollow flights, shaft and trough jacket. Heat passes through those surfaces into the product, which receives controlled treatment as it is conveyed continuously.
Typical materials include petroleum coke, polymer powders, filter cake, sewage sludge, pastes, fine dusts, biomass, sand and limestone, as well as other temperature-sensitive products.
It gives uniform heating, high thermal efficiency, a compact footprint, gentle handling and reliable continuous operation. The hollow-flight design increases heat transfer area compared with a jacketed trough alone.
In a hollow-flight heating screw conveyor, the heating medium circulates inside the screw flights themselves. Since the flights are the main surface in contact with the product, this transfers heat far more efficiently than heating the trough alone.
A self-cleaning heating screw conveyor uses two intermeshing hollow-flight shafts. The close clearance and high relative speed between the flights scrape off sticky material, keeping heat transfer surfaces clean.
Choose a self-cleaning design for sticky, pasty or bridging materials, such as sludges and filter cake, that would otherwise coat the flights and insulate them. It keeps heating performance steady and reduces cleaning downtime.
U.S. users include aluminum smelters and anode plants, chemical and polymer producers, food processors, wastewater and biosolids facilities, and mineral and recycling operations.
Thermal oil, steam, hot water and electric heating are all possible. The choice depends on the target temperature, process conditions and the utilities available at your plant.
