CHALLENGE
A screw feeder is commonly used to meter flow in powder processing applications because of ease of use, low maintenance, and material integrity without degradation. The relatively simplistic equipment design of the screw feeder can be misleading when selecting and specifying motor and auger sizes.
Sizing feeders with the proper motor and auger for optimal processing is not as straight forward as matching the capacity of the auger/ feeder to the material. Horsepower requirements can vary significantly with different materials. As the auger diameters increase, the differences in material can result in a dramatic increase in horsepower requirements. This is because the surface area of auger and material contact increase dramatically.
Please download the full document for equations used to calculate the proper motor and auger size for your specific application, as well as supporting figures.
