Folding Conveyor Design Question

[natebott]

Use hydraulic cylinders to open and close folding discharge conveyors. Looking for a proven method for sizing the cylinders based on connection point relation to pivot point. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ross0684]

Can you be more specific about the application:
Type of conveyor, product being handled, description of actual method of operation,all relevant information to allow us to get our thoughts around what you are attemting to do etc.
Ross

 

[natebott]

Conveyor is approximately 20 ft long, two sections one 4 ft, the other 16. Conveyor is 5 ft wide, and at a 30 deg. angle in relationship to the ground. It is a discharge conveyor on a shredding machine. Material ranges from wood to steel. Hydraulic cylinders are used to fold and unfold the conveyor into transport and working positions.

 

[Ross0684]

Further questions!!
Do you only wish to fold the 4 ft section in relationship to the 16 ft piece,
or the whole structure in relationship to a sub base- I am assuming from your answer that the conveyor is mobile?
We build mobile conveyors( up to about 2'6" wide) that pivot from a horizontal configuration to an inclined one (30 deg ok)and only use a 2 1/2" dia hyd cylinder and simple hand pump.
For your application, slightly more capacity may be required, but a simple force vector analysis should provide the required cylinder force.
I am unable to determine how to attach a sketch to this posting-a picture is worth a 1000 words!