Improving Process Flow with Lump Breakers

The movement of products through a processing system can significantly impact profitability in bulk material handling facilities. Often, materials tend to clump together during storage, transport, or manufacturing due to moisture or gravity. These lumps pose a challenge because they complicate the processing stages. To mitigate this issue, manufacturers frequently utilize machines such as lump breakers. Despite their relatively straightforward designs, these machines are highly efficient in preparing bulk materials for further processing.

The Simplicity and Effectiveness of the Lump Breaker

Also known as de-lumpers, flake breakers, lump crushers, or lump disintegrators, lump breakers play a crucial role in breaking down agglomerated materials into smaller, more manageable particles. No matter the specific design of the lump breaker, these machines ensure greater process efficiency and enhance the quality of the final product. The versatility of their design makes them invaluable for pre-conditioning raw materials and conditioning the final product to eliminate lumps and clumps.

Irrespective of the type of lump breaker, they all serve the following four primary functions: 

• Conveying: Lumpy materials are harder to transport, especially when using pneumatic conveyance methods. Even with belt conveyance, this inefficiency remains evident; the design of a lump breaker ensures that dry powders are conditioned to achieve the right particle-to-air ratio, making conveyance more efficient. This also improves the smooth operation of rotary valve feeders, screw feeders, vibrating feeders, and other feeding mechanisms.
• Deagglomeration: During transport or prolonged storage, dry bulk materials often form clumps due to compression caused by gravity. This creates air pockets that eventually collapse, forming lumps, which can worsen under humid conditions. This commonly happens in:
• Day bins
• Intermediate bulk containers
• Rail cars
• Silos
• Super sacks

In many facilities incorporating a lump breaker, the machine is often located below silos or other containers to deagglomerate raw materials for discharge, a practice common in sugar processing facilities.

• Efficiency: A key but often overlooked aspect of lump breaker design is how it adds value to downstream processes while minimizing the risk of clogging or breakdowns caused by agglomerated materials. Tougher lumps can damage mesh, sieves, or other screening equipment meant for classification, which are not designed to handle agglomerated material.
• Transportation: Transporting raw materials or finished products becomes more costly when large lumps are present since it requires more energy to move substances with inconsistent particle densities. Materials with uniformly shaped and sized particles not only flow better but also settle better, leading to more balanced loads.

No matter their design specifics, lump breakers reduce downtime, boost processing speeds, and improve the consistency of finished products. This holds true regardless of their purpose or placement within a processing system. Built to abrade, compress, impact, or shear, the humble lump breaker is an essential piece of equipment that enhances process flow in any material handling system.

Enhancing Material Flow Through Lump Breaker Design

Lump-breaking machines are generally used prior to processes like blending, feeding, pneumatic conveying, and sifting of granular or powdered materials. They are often positioned within chute, conveying, or duct systems. While the basic lump breaker design does not vary much in appearance, the materials used depend on the specific application. Most lump breakers have either a single or dual shaft, with screen sizes and shapes customized for different needs.

Lump breakers improve the mixing of powders by reducing agglomeration and creating more uniform particles, resulting in more homogeneous mixtures. They help enhance the quality of the final product by evenly distributing ingredients. When powders are mixed uniformly, manufacturers can increase throughput without significantly raising energy consumption, thereby boosting productivity.

In systems incorporating a lump breaker, it is typically placed upstream from equipment that could get blocked by clumps of material. Jamming is common in many material processing systems, so preventing blockages can reduce downtime. This is why bulk powder processing systems often include at least one lump breaker, which is customized for specific applications to avoid downstream clogs.

Most lump breaker designs include these main components:  

• Comb-like bars (often called “teeth”)
• Feed inlet and discharge outlet for product
• Motor and drive
• Reducer
• Rotating shaft(s)

However, several factors should be considered by manufacturers when evaluating the nuances of lump breaker design.

Processing concerns that influence lump breaker design include: 

• Size, percentage, and hardness of lumps in the product
• Density and flow rates of material entering the lump breaker
• Levels of fat, moisture, or oils within the material being processed (which may necessitate a non-stick coating)
• Whether the product is coarse, granulated, or in a powdery texture

Abrasive materials tend to wear down machine parts faster, so it’s often best to consult a vendor with a testing facility to develop an optimal lump breaker design. In addition to rotor tip speed, the design of the teeth should be carefully considered. Additionally, some manufacturers prefer a variable frequency drive (VFD) for greater efficiency, allowing the machine to adjust its speed as needed. Furthermore, a lump breaker design that allows easy and safe access for removing and replacing the screen provides greater flexibility.

Understanding How a Lump Breaker Operates

Typically, a dual-shaft lump breaker design includes two rotors, whereas a single-shaft design has one. A lump breaker’s rotor is equipped with blades, breaker bars, hammers, teeth, or other tooling, depending on the application and material being processed. These components force material through a fixed grate opening, whose width determines the size of particles that can pass through it. While these rotating tools are designed to push material toward the center of the machine where it is crushed and ground, they also help prevent blockage around the grate.

Fine-Tuning Lump Breaker Design

The specific lump breaker design required for a given application depends on the material properties of the product and the intended use of the final product. A knowledgeable vendor can help determine the ideal lump breaker design for the processed material and application.

Industries Utilizing Lump Breakers

Regardless of the exact lump breaker design specifications, these workhorses of material handling can process countless materials for a wide array of industrial applications. Lump breakers are utilized by the chemical, construction, food processing, mining, pharmaceutical, and many other sectors to efficiently process bulk materials. Regardless of the material being processed, the lump breaker design should aid in deagglomeration and mixing processes to ensure uniform consistency in the product. This, in turn, facilitates smoother processing of granulated and powdered dry materials in bulk.

The diversity in lump breaker design means these machines can handle multiple materials and varied applications across numerous industries.

Prater Lump Breaker Designs

Prater Industries offers two broad categories of lump breaker designs: a standard model and an easy-to-clean model. Our standard version also comes as either a dual-shaft flake breaker model or as a single-shaft lump breaker design, both featuring low profiles that make it easier to position the machines within a processing system. Equipped with blades that rotate in opposite directions, they work well for granulating or conditioning materials that become compacted.

Prater’s two basic lump breaker designs: 

• Standard lump breaker: This lump breaker design offers a cost-effective way to reduce naturally agglomerated or deliberately compacted materials for a wide range of applications, including recycling and waste disposal.  
• Quick-Clean lump breaker: This easy-to-clean lump breaker design offers a simpler method of disassembling the unit for cleaning and maintenance. The end plate and rotor can be disengaged from the drive and extracted from the machine on a glide rail system without tools.

Prater can tailor the machine to meet a customer’s specific needs, regardless of the lump breaker design. Prater can customize screens by shape and size and different construction materials to suit specific applications. With a Prater lump breaker, designs allow for easy replacement of screens and other internal components, enabling manufacturers to optimize materials for the best fit with the application. To learn more about Prater’s lump breakers and other material handling equipment, contact one of our representatives today.