Pneumatic Conveying 101

By Doan Pendleton, vice president, Vac-U-Max

It could be said that designing pneumatic conveying systems is like operating a sailboat. While one may understand the mechanics of sailing, know the type of boat they want, where they want to take it, how to hoist the sails and motor it out of the harbor, understanding the intricacies of how to navigate the boat using the sails requires some advanced knowledge.

In terms of pneumatic conveying, users may know that they have a 55-gal drum of powder sitting on the floor that needs to get into a process in a certain amount of time and at a particular rate, but understanding the subtleties between dense- or dilute-phase, and positive or negative pressure systems also requires some advanced knowledge.

Regardless if users of pneumatic conveying systems are novices who simply understand the mechanics of pneumatic conveying, or experts who understand the subtleties of pneumatic conveying, there are three universal requirements that all users have when purchasing a pneumatic conveying system: they need to know that the system will work with their specific product; that the system will perform the way a company says it will; and, that it won’t break the bank