I saw a post on LinkedIn and on multiple bulk handling websites the below showed movie. The movie projects a machine separating colored balls by some kind of magic. First of all this movie is false! This movie is a simulation of a Galton board, also known as a bean machine, quincunx or Galton box, was developed by Sir Francis Galton in the 1800 to demonstrate the central limit theorem. In reality, this machine doesn’t exist. This video is a computer simulation of a “Galton board” with Blender, an open-source 3D computer graphics software. Firstly, simulation was run with all white balls. When the objects all settled, they assigned each ball a color and ran the program again.

However, working in the dry bulk solids industry it was easy to see how this could work for separating dry bulk materials.

Explanation Galton Board

It’s science!

The balls are unfortunately not being sorted by magic, it is science! Or to be more precise, it is physics! All the balls are all slightly different sizes and therefore behave differently once they are poured out of the funnel. The pegs will allow only certain sizes through to each compartment which allows the balls to be sorted by color but really they are also being sorted by size.

Test Your Materials

This video is an important reminder that all dry bulk solids or dry bulk particles behave differently and although they may appear to be the same to the human eye the particles might be slightly different. Lion Bulk Handling always recommend testing the bulk materials before choosing a bulk handling system or conveying solution. Together with our partner FLSmidth, we have our own bulk material laboratory in Germany, a database of product conveying trials logged over fifty years, taking the guesswork out of assessing flow rates and expected performance. Lion Bulk Handling provides an performance guarantee with every delivered bulk handling system.
Do you want to know more about your dry bulk material, contact us here.