Bucket Elevator

A bucket elevator, also called a grain leg, is a mechanism for hauling flowable bulk materials vertically.

It consists of:

1. Buckets to contain the material;
2. A belt to carry the buckets and transmit the pull;
3. Means to drive the belt;
4. Accessories for loading the buckets or picking up the material, for receiving the discharged material, for maintaining the belt tension and for enclosing and protecting the elevator.

A bucket elevator can elevate a variety of bulk materials from light to heavy and from fine to large lumps.

A centrifugal discharge elevator may be vertical or inclined. Vertical elevators depend entirely on the action of centrifugal force to get the material into the discharge chute and must be run at speeds relatively high. Inclined elevators with buckets spaced apart or set close together may have the discharge chute set partly under the head pulley. Since they don't depend entirely on the centrifugal force to put the material into the chute, the speed may be relatively lower.