Thayer Bridge Breaker® Flow Aid

Material Flow Promotion

The Thayer Scale Bridge Breaker® flow aid ensures reliable discharge of materials that tend to bridge, cake, flush or otherwise obstruct free and consistent flow. The design solves one of the biggest problems encountered in highly automated process industries: the removal of bulk solids from storage bins or hoppers. Unlike competitive solutions, the Bridge Breaker flow aid shakes only the material contained within a vessel—it does not transmit vibrations to the vessel’s walls.

Bridge Breaker® Flow Aid

Thayer Scale’s Bridge Breaker® flow aid moves material that tends to bridge, rathole or obstruct free flow through a silo, bin, hopper or chute. We construct the Bridge Breaker flow aid from either expanded metal or bar screens and design it to suit individual bin configurations. The screens are internally mounted, parallel to the bin walls. An externally-mounted vibrator transmits a rapid vibrating action to the screens by means of bolts that pass through the bin wall. The bolts pass through vibration mounts, permitting the Bridge Breaker flow aid screen to vibrate freely without transmitting any motion to the bin walls. The unique design is exceptionally quiet and reduces bin weld fatigue (a flaw commonly associated with flow aids that transmit vibrations to bin walls).

The screen is placed at critical points in the bin where bridging or arching might occur. Continuous operation of the Bridge Breaker flow aid during discharge prevents bridges and arches by undercutting the bridge or arch and sending the material to the bin’s discharge point. This process ensures the continuous flow of material.

Because the motion of the vibrating screen is always parallel with the sides of the bin, the vibration does not compact the material. The customizable screen sections adapt to either flat or conical surfaces.

Bridge Breaker flow aids operate with hard-to-handle materials such as titanium dioxide, clays, and pigments. The screen assemblies fit areas of up to ten square feet, depending on the type of material and bin configuration. While many Bridge Breaker flow aids can be mounted within a bin, only a few are needed—if placed at critical points— to successfully prevent bridging and arching.

Products Handled by Thayer Bridge Breaker Include: