Shaftless Screw Conveyors for Conveying Shredded Wood Huber Engineered Woods in Broken Bow, OK

General Description

Huber Engineered Woods manufactures high performance roof, wall and flooring products for residential and light commercial projects nationwide. Founded in 1883, J.M. Huber Corporation is one of the largest family-owned companies in the U.S. The Broken Bow, OK facility is North America’s largest oriented strand board plant.

As part of a major plant upgrade, Huber partnered with KWS to resolve plugging issues on several screw conveyors. Irregular lumps of shredded wood were constantly causing major plugging issues on traditional shafted screw conveyors with hanger bearings. KWS designed and supplied multiple shaftless screw conveyors to solve a critical problem and improve productivity.

Design Parameters

1. Product Type: Shredded Wood
2. Material Density: 50 to 60 Lbs. per Cubic Foot
3. Max Capacity: 3,000 Cubic Feet per Hour
4. Duty: 7 days a week, 24 Hours per Day

KWS Advantages

Engineers from KWS met with Huber personnel to witness first-hand the problems at the plant. KWS responded to Huber’s needs with a wealth of knowledge and expertise. The shredded wood product was plugging at the hanger bearings of the traditional shafted screw conveyors causing excessive downtime and maintenance. KWS engineers designed a shaftless conveyor system to eliminate hanger bearings and remove the possibility of plugging. Detailed drawings of each new shaftless screw conveyor were created and presented to Huber for approval. The new shaftless screw conveyors were delivered ahead of a planned shutdown.

Special Features

KWS shaftless screw conveyors are highly engineered to exact standards. KWS-350 high strength shaftless spirals are the strongest and toughest in the industry. The KWS one-piece drive shaft design will never fail for the life of the screw conveyor. Since the shredded wood material has the potential to get under the shaftless spiral during conveying, KWS designed a special hold-down featuring four batten bars with a unibody design to make sure the spiral is held in place.