Heavy-duty coal auger conveyor design.
Case study: ASTCAD reverse-engineered and re-designed a heavy-duty screw auger conveyor for a Queensland coal handling plant — replacing a failing 1990s-vintage unit with a modular, wear-resistant design built from current rolled-steel sections.
Project overview
A Queensland coal handling plant operator engaged ASTCAD to replace a failing 1990s screw auger conveyor at the dewatering bin discharge. The legacy unit had non-replaceable wear surfaces and the drawings were lost in a fire. ASTCAD reverse-engineered the existing geometry, then redesigned with modular wear liners, current rolled-steel sections and serviceable bearing assemblies.
The challenge
The replacement had to drop directly into the existing concrete plinth, accept the existing motor and gearbox, and discharge into the same downstream chute — but with significantly higher wear life and faster on-site bearing service. Existing OEM had ceased trading, and no manufacturing drawings were available.
Our approach
- Reverse engineering via structured-light 3D scan of the existing unit
- Auger flight design with bolt-on hardfaced wear segments
- Bearing housing redesign with twin-row spherical roller bearings accessible without disassembly
- Trough liner system with replaceable 16 mm Hardox wear plates
- FEA validation of shaft stress under jam-load condition
Deliverables
- Full mechanical assembly and component drawings
- Manufacturing dossier with material specs and welding procedures
- Wear-liner replacement schedule and procedure
- Installation and commissioning plan
- Spare parts list with critical-path replacement items
Outcome
The new auger has been operating for 27 months without unplanned downtime. Wear liner change-outs (previously requiring 36 hours of plant shutdown) now take 4 hours. The client has commissioned a second unit for the load-out conveyor application using the same modular design.
How we approach coal auger conveyor design
Coal auger conveyor design combines materials-handling engineering with the practical realities of coal — abrasive, variable moisture, and unforgiving of dead spots where fines accumulate. We size the auger flighting, pitch and speed for the target throughput with realistic fill factors, design the trough and liners for wear life, and select drives with the torque margin that starting a full auger demands. Structural supports are engineered for the dynamic loads, and access for liner replacement and blockage clearing is designed in rather than discovered missing during the first maintenance shutdown.
Auger system deliverables
The documentation package covers general arrangements, flighting and trough fabrication drawings, drive and bearing schedules, wear liner details with replacement procedures, and guarding to machinery safety standards. Where the auger integrates with existing plant, we survey the interfaces and document the tie-ins so installation happens in a planned shutdown window rather than an extended one.
We design screw conveyors and auger systems for coal, grain and bulk materials across capacities from workshop-scale to production plant. Send the material specification and throughput target and we will scope the design package with fabrication-ready deliverables.
Wear management dominates auger whole-of-life cost, so the design decisions that matter most are the ones that make liner replacement fast: bolted liner segments sized for manual handling, access covers positioned where the wear actually happens, and flighting designed for weld-repair or segment replacement rather than full replacement. An auger designed this way turns a two-day shutdown job into a half-shift one, and over years of coal that difference dwarfs the original fabrication cost.
For plants running legacy augers without documentation, we also offer reverse-engineering of existing systems: survey and scan the installed equipment, produce accurate fabrication drawings, and give maintenance a documented baseline for the spares and repairs the plant has been improvising for years.