The Role of Lump Breakers in Reducing Material Waste and Costs

Excess moisture can cause dry bulk materials such as coal, gypsum, sugar, salt, and powders to clump together during storage and transportation. Not only do these heavier clumps need more energy to convey – raising your energy costs – but most clients only purchase materials of decently consistent size. That can leave you with a lot of material that ends up going to waste.

To keep costs low and convey as much salable material as possible, manufacturers often rely on lump breakers. These devices break down clumps of dry bulk material, making them easier to convey and more attractive to buyers. By installing a lump breaker in your pneumatic conveying system, you can reduce your costs and raise your profits at the same time.

What are lump breakers?

Lump breakers are mechanical devices that feature a crushing chamber with one or two rotating shafts. These shafts are mounted with specially shaped teeth or blades that rotate through a fixed comb, crushing clumps of material into smaller pieces. Though lump breakers don’t reduce materials to a specific size, they do make them much easier to transport and sell.

Industries that frequently rely on lump breakers include foods and pet foods, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and aggregates. When searching for a lump breaker, you might also find them referred to as powder crushers, lump crushers, or granulators.

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How do lump breakers work?

In single-rotor lump breakers, the rotor turns the teeth or blades in one direction to crush clumped materials against a sizing screen.

In dual-rotor crushers, two intermeshing shafts counter-rotate. The lumps are crushed between the teeth or blades, and then against the sizing screen.

Materials are fed into the grinding chamber through an inlet and fall through the sizing screen once they’re small enough. If crushed particles are still too large, they remain in the crushing chamber until repeated impacts reduce them to the desired size.

Slow-speed lump breakers are well suited to breaking down coarse or hard materials. High-speed lump breakers, on the other hand, work best for finer discharge sizes.

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Top 3 Benefits of lump breakers

1) Higher product value

As well as transportation and storage, silos, intermediate bulk containers, Day Bins, rail cars, and super sacks can also cause materials to clump. These clumped materials aren’t attractive to potential clients, as they would require additional processing to make them fit for purpose.

By breaking your materials down into finer particles before sale, you can more easily meet market expectations. This raises the value of your product and encourages larger purchases from a higher number of clients. As a result, you can sell a greater proportion of product that would otherwise have gone to waste.

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2) Lower energy costs

Achieving the correct air-to-particle ratio is key to minimizing your energy costs. But particles that are too heavy require greater air velocity to convey. That means you need to increase the output of your blower unit and spend more money on energy.

Lump breakers, however, reduce the size of materials as soon as they leave their storage containers. This allows you to convey the same amount of product with lower air pressure. By precisely adjusting your energy usage, you can limit costs while keeping your efficiency high.

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3) Protects your equipment

Once materials have been broken down by a lump breaker, they’re typically fed through a sizing screen. These are designed to keep foreign materials out of your conveying stream and maintain a high degree of quality.

But when clumped materials are fed into the sizing screen they can easily cause damage. You’ll need to replace the screen to ensure effective quality control, which means paying for replacement components and suffering unnecessary downtime.

Large clumps of materials can also cause damage to bends and elbows as they collide. While breaking down materials can increase the risk of abrasive wear, it also means you can install abrasion-resistant elbows that are specifically designed to address the issue. This can further reduce component wear, allowing you to save even more time and money.

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Reduce waste and costs with our once-through lump breakers

Investing in a lump breaker empowers you to limit unnecessary expenses while increasing the profitability of your dry bulk materials. The more effective and reliable your lump breaker, the more you stand to gain.

Our minimal-waste lump breakers increase your efficiency by improving downstream processing from 20 tons per hour. They’re operator friendly and offer a once-through process, making them very easy to use. We offer 12”x12” and 24”x24” models in 304 stainless steel, 316 stainless steel, and carbon steel, giving you plenty of options to suit your needs and budget.

Check out our lump breakers online now and get in touch to arrange a free material test.