Centrifugal bucket elevators are most commonly used to convey all free-flowing, powdered bulk solids such as grains, animal feed, sand, minerals, sugar, aggregates, chemicals, etc. They operate at high speeds, which throw the materials out the buckets into discharge throats by centrifugal force. Centrifugal Discharge Bucket Elevator can have buckets mounted at intervals on chain or belt. Centrifugal Discharge Bucket Elevators are used to handle bulk materials which can be picked up by the spaced buckets as they pass under the boot wheel and discharge by centrifugal forces as the buckets pass over the head.
A centrifugal discharge elevator may be vertical or inclined. Vertical elevators depend entirely on the action of centrifugal force to get the material into the discharge chute and must be run at speeds relatively high. Inclined elevators with buckets spaced apart or set close together may have the discharge chute set partly under the head pulley. Since they don't depend entirely on the centrifugal force to put the material into the chute, the speed may be relatively lower.