The conveying of granular materials is present in many industries: pharmaceuticals with helical screws, food processing with vibration systems, mining with conveyor belts, among other examples. These systems require many adjustments to achieve optimal performance, which also depends on the material used and environmental factors: size distribution, grain shape, water content, etc. It is experimentally impossible to consider and test all configurations in advance. Numerical modeling provides a fast and inexpensive solution to perform sensitivity analyses and identify key parameters.
Itasca optimizes conveyor systems by creating a reference model (calibrated to a standard configuration) that can then be easily modified to test new materials or to improve transition areas between different conveyor zones, for example.