What Is a Magnetic Head Pulley?

A magnetic head pulley (also called a magnetic pulley or separator roller) is a conveyor head pulley with a stationary permanent-magnet assembly built into its core and a rotating stainless steel shell around it. Installed at the discharge end, it replaces the standard pulley entirely — no separate housing, no extra footprint, no electrical supply. It is the head-end version of a magnetic roller and magnetic pulley system and one of the core products in the magnetic separators range and works continuously: every revolution of the belt is a cleaning cycle.

Working Principle

The magnet assembly is fixed; only the shell rotates with the belt. As material travels over the pulley face:

1. Non-magnetic ore follows its normal throw trajectory and drops into the main product chute.

2. Ferrous tramp metal is attracted through the belt and held against the shell, so it stays on the belt past the normal discharge point.

3. As the belt carries the iron around the underside and out of the magnetic field, the metal drops into a separate collection chute behind an adjustable splitter plate.

The splitter plate position is the single most commissioning-critical detail: set it too far back and iron falls into product; too far forward and ore contaminates the metal chute. Because capture depends on material staying in contact with the belt across the pulley arc, this is inherently a magnetic drums and rollers style of separation — contact separation — rather than a lift-and-throw method.

Where a Pulley Magnet Wins — and Where It Does Not

Direct answer: pulley magnets excel on thin burdens; overband magnets win on deep beds and high belt speeds.

The pulley's advantage is physics: at the head pulley the burden is at its thinnest and flattest, often a single layer, so iron sits close to the magnet. The same magnet over a 300 mm deep bed three meters back cannot reach the metal at all. That is why many plants pair both: an electromagnetic overband separator suspended over the belt for bulk recovery, and a self-cleaning pulley as the final polish at discharge — or, where only one is affordable, a pulley magnet because it costs nothing to run and nothing to clean.

Case Study

Customer type: Aggregate producer, 2.2 Mt/a crushed granite operation

Ore type: Abrasive granite with occasional drilling steel and bucket teeth in the feed

Operating conditions: 1,200 mm belt, 2.5 m/s, head pulley 630 mm, burden depth 80–120 mm

Problem: Six metal-damage stoppages in one year — two damaged cone liner sets and repeated belt punctures from sharp tramp passing to the secondary circuit.

Solution: Replaced the standard head pulley with a 630 mm permanent magnetic pulley, ferrite deep-reach circuit, diamond rubber lagging; shafts re-machined to existing bearings. Splitter plate adjusted over two commissioning hours; existing secondary cleaner relocated.

Result: Tramp iron reaching the secondary jaw crushers and cone circuit fell by roughly 90% by weight of recovered metal per month. Metal-related unplanned downtime dropped from six events per year to one in the following eighteen months, and magnet running cost is zero. Payback period: about 14 months, driven mainly by avoided liner damage and stopped-time. The clean product now reports onward to screening without metal contamination complaints.

Contact Us

Contact: Annie Lu

Email: annie.lu@huataogroup.com

Phone / WhatsApp: +86 180 3242 2676

Website: http://www.tufflexscreen.com

We warmly welcome customers from around the world to contact us and establish mutually beneficial partnerships.