Chutes: The ultimate dust control
Controlling dust when transferring a dry bulk material
by gravity from one point to another starts
with good chute design. After covering dust-generation
mechanisms and basic chute dynamics, this article
describes how to design chutes that minimize
dusting in your material handling system.
In an ideal world, a material handling system has properly
designed chutes that smoothly direct material flow
from conveyor and vessel outlets to the inlets of other
conveyors and vessels without generating dust. In the real
world, however, chutes are often poorly designed, making
them the handling system’s biggest source of spillage and
dusting. In fact, in many bulk material handling plants, a
material’s transfer from one belt conveyor to another is the
largest single contributor not only to airborne dust contamination but product loss.