Improved Design of the Working Body of a Flexible Sectional Screw Conveyor

The article outlines the design of a sectional screw working body which can improve the performance of screw conveyors, reduce the material consumption of the working body and energy costs for the transportation process. An analytical dependence between the design parameters of the flexible shaft of the screw working body and the radius of its curvature, which is determined by the angular displacement of adjacent sections of the screw working body, is derived. The graphical relationship between the parameters of the connection of sections and the radius of curvature of the technological line is drawn. To ensure proper functioning, an investigation has been carried out of the design parameters of the hinge assembly, which ensures their mutual rotation and angular displacement of the axes without jamming. An analytical relationship is derived by means of which it is possible to determine the displacements along the arc of the spherical bushing of the ball on both friction surfaces, the speed of the movement of each ball, as well as the efficiency coefficiency of the hinge and the amount of torque on the drive shaft \(T = f(\varphi )\) of individual sections.