November 2007 - Featured Article
K-Slip solves all hopper & chute lining problems
- One of the most common problems in the powder and bulk materials handling industry is poor product flow. Problems such as rat holing, bridging or arching and caking are experienced on a daily basis and can be a big contributor to lost production time in many industries.
One method of reducing flow problems in hoppers and chutes is the use of a liner. However, most liners are designed as much for abrasion resistance as they are for flow assistance and therefore have a tendency to be a relatively thick and consequently, inflexible material.
For many reasons, hoppers and chutes can often be fabricated with quite complex geometries where access is often restricted. In these situations, retrofitting a liner can be very difficult, if not impossible.
In applications where abrasion resistance isn’t required, but a liner with a low coefficient of friction would alleviate the problem, a thinner, more flexible liner is the solution.
Unlike most hopper and chute lining materials, K-Slip from Kinder and Co is only 2mm thick, making it extremely flexible and allowing it to be used for the most complex shaped vessels.
With an extremely low coefficient of friction, the K-Slip polyethylene lining material effectively solves flow problems in applications for non-abrasive fine particle products.
The K-Slip polyethylene liner has a synthetic rubber backing (SBR). Application to a metal surface is by normal cold rubber bonding, so the product can be easily applied to hoppers and chutes with round corners or acute angles. Applications where the use of a conventional liner fixed with fasteners would be very difficult, if not impossible.
K-Slip is also effective in applications where product tends to stick on even the steepest of angles and has been effectively proven in applications such as the handling of mineral concentrates, which have notoriously poor flow characteristics.
