Compact screw conveyor for flow metering at a laboratory-scale flow loop

Screw conveyors find vast application in material/powder feeding systems. This paper presents a technology development by introducing a compact and simple design of a screw conveyor system for material feeding. The herein developed system serves the purpose of attaining controlled material feeding rate of solid particles in a flow loop. The screw conveyor is driven by a stepper motor whose step size is predefined. Calibration tests are carried out in order to obtain an accurate relationship between the step size and material feeding. Then, open-loop feeding control is achieved in terms of accurate step size rate. Experimental results demonstrate reliable system characteristics.