Sealing Bucket Elevators.
Bucket elevators are the canonical 'trapped shaft' problem. The head shaft sits between two heavy bearings welded into the head section. Pulling a bearing for a seal change is a two-day shutdown. The Split Seal turns it into a three-hour repair on a running plant.
01The equipment
What an bucket elevators actually is.
A bucket elevator carries bulk solids vertically using buckets attached to a chain or belt running between a head pulley at the top and a boot pulley at the bottom. Head and boot shaft penetrations through the casing both require seals. Head shafts are typically the harder seal — large diameter, trapped between bearings, near hot product.
02Failure modes
Why sealing this equipment is hard.
- 01
Trapped head shafts that can't be pulled
Bucket-elevator head shafts are commonly welded between two bearings. Removing a bearing for a seal change requires dismantling the elevator head — a multi-day outage. Split seals install in place.
- 02
Hot, dusty environment near the head pulley
Cement, lime, and ash elevators run with internal temperatures around the head approaching 400 °F. High-temperature elastomers (HT variants) and tungsten faces are mandatory.
- 03
Boot shaft submerged in spillage
Boot shafts often sit in product accumulation — especially on poorly swept boots. Sealing here means tolerating intermittent submersion under wet, abrasive solids.
- 04
Negative-pressure casing service
Many process elevators run under slight negative pressure for dust control. The seal must hold against atmospheric infiltration as well as product retention.
03Recommended series
What we ship for bucket elevators.
04Industries that use this equipment
Where you'll find bucket elevators in production.
05Engineering FAQ
What plant engineers ask before specifying.
Bucket Elevators · sized in 24 hours
Get a sized seal recommendation for your bucket elevators.
Send shaft size, OEM make and model, and the operating envelope. We respond with a sized series, materials, and pricing — typically within one business day.