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Engineering ToolBox > Pneumatic Powder and Solid Transport Systems
Some common solids as flour, sugar, cement and many more, can be suspended and transported in air - referred as pneumatic conveying. A pneumatic conveying system may transport solids up to approximately 50 mm size. The powder or solid must be dry, with no more than 20% moisture and not sticking.
In a pneumatic conveying system, most of the energy is used for the transport of the air itself. The energy efficiency of a pneumatic conveying plant is therefore relatively low, but this is often outweighed by easy handling and, in well designed systems, dust free solutions.
In general the length of a pneumatic system should not extend 300 m for each pneumatic unit. The products can be conveyed over long distances by connecting the systems in series.
There are three basic designs of pneumatic transport systems:
Pneumatic systems can operate with both positive and negative pressures - vacuum. The working pressure should not extend 40 kN/m2.
The maximum temperature rise during pneumatic compression is seldom above 5oC, which makes pneumatic transport systems suitable to sensitive products as medicines, food or similar.