Design and Analysis of Drag Chain to Reduce Failure Modes for handling of Fertilizer Materials

Abstract

According to the relevance towards the nation priorities, the economy of India is dominated by agricultural, industrial sector and livestock breeding. Cattle feed factories play an important role in economy of India. About 60% processes in these factories are based on drag chain conveyors. Apart from that, other industries also use these chains frequently for process atomization. However, failure of these chains is perennial problem in these industries which cause losses of industries and ultimately influence over economical growth of the nation. Material uncertainty plays an important role on formation of elastic and plastic stress. The faulty manufacturing such as wall thickness of link, breaking area of links, bending movement of pin, inner width of chain and shape of the link and uncertainty in heat treatment was responsible root cause for breakdown of the chain. We found the limited patents for the improvement of chain life as well as reduction in failure modes. Moreover, there is more scope in improving the strength of conveying system by using modified manufacturing as well as heat treatment process. In the present study, the improvement of breaking load, reducing the percentage elongation and failure mode, increases the strength of drag chain conveyor system. We found that the maximum stress is 500 N/mm 2 for drag chain and for modified drag chain; it is 486.49 N/mm 2 by FEA. From these two values, it is cleared that stresses are reduced by 13.51 N/mm 2 in modified drag chain by FEA. Also, load carrying capacity is less in old drag chain, then by improving in manufacturing processes, mechanical properties and heat treatment processes, we can increase the strength and load carrying capacity of new drag chain by keeping the area and material same.