Both a tubular chain conveyor and a tubular (fully enclosed) screw conveyor keep material sealed away from the surrounding environment — no dust, no moisture pickup, no contamination exposure. But the mechanism inside the pipe is fundamentally different, and that difference determines which one actually suits your material.
Tubular Chain Conveyor
A continuous chain fitted with disc flights runs through a sealed pipe, moving material by dragging it along in a low-velocity, gentle action. Routing can combine horizontal, vertical, and diagonal sections in a single continuous system — ENZAC's standard range covers up to 60m horizontal and 20m vertical distance in one run.
Best fit: fragile, friable, or degradation-sensitive materials; complex routing needing multiple direction changes without separate transfer points; applications where zero product aeration and zero moisture pickup are hard requirements — oleochemical (soap noodles, fatty acids), food ingredients, pharmaceutical APIs.
Where it falls short: the low-velocity, gentle-handling design trades away throughput — tubular chain conveying isn't the choice for high-tonnage bulk transfer where speed matters more than gentleness.
Enclosed (Tubular) Screw Conveyor
A helical screw on a central shaft rotates inside a fully enclosed round tube, pushing material along by rotational action rather than dragging it with a chain.
Best fit: fine powders and dusty materials needing full containment, at meaningfully higher throughput than tubular chain conveying typically offers, and where steeper incline capability (beyond what a tubular chain's diagonal routing handles) is needed.
Where it falls short: the screw's rotating, pushing action is more mechanically aggressive than a chain-and-flight system — fragile or friable materials that need genuinely gentle handling are better served by tubular chain conveying, and multi-plane routing (multiple direction changes in one run) is not a screw conveyor's strength.
Decision Table
| Requirement | Tubular Chain | Enclosed Screw |
|---|---|---|
| Fragile/friable material, degradation-sensitive | ✓ Best fit | Higher degradation risk |
| Multi-plane routing (horizontal + vertical + diagonal) | ✓ Best fit | Limited — primarily straight runs |
| High throughput bulk transfer | Lower throughput ceiling | ✓ Better suited |
| Full dust/moisture containment | ✓ Best fit | ✓ Also suited |
| Steep incline in a single straight run | Handled via diagonal routing | ✓ Better suited |
| Sticky or cohesive material prone to buildup | Chain design resists buildup better | Can build up on shaft/flights |
Both Solve Containment — the Real Decision Is Material Behaviour
If your priority is keeping a dusty, fine powder fully sealed at high throughput, an enclosed screw conveyor is usually the more cost-effective answer. If your priority is protecting a fragile, sticky, or high-purity material from degradation while routing it through a complex path, a tubular chain conveyor is built specifically for that job. Getting this decision wrong doesn't just cost efficiency — it can mean degraded product reaching the next process stage.
Review the full Tubular Chain Conveyor specification range before finalising which enclosed conveying method goes into your client's scope.
Ready to talk about your tubular chain conveyor?
ENZAC sizes and supplies tubular chain conveyors in Malaysia, matched to your material's fragility and routing requirement. Send us your project's material properties and layout and we'll recommend a configuration and sizing.