Ordinary bends provide a pneumatic conveying pipeline with considerable flexibility but are the cause of two main problems: erosive wear and material degradation. If the conveyed material, such as cement, is abrasive, an ordinary bend could fail within hours.

INGESOA® spherical bends help to reduce erosive wear and particle degradation with the expansion of the air to a larger section. This expansion reduces the air velocity and consequently the impact velocity against the bend wall. The turbulence in spherical bends is so great that even if the velocity falls bellow the minimum value for the material, the pipeline is unlikely to block.

Due to the impact of particles against bend walls and general turbulence, there is a pressure drop across every bend in a pipeline. The particles leaving the bend are at a lower velocity than that at entry and so they have to be reaccelerated. The major element of this pressure drop is that due to this reacceleration of the particles back to their terminal velocity, which is recorded across the straight length of pipeline following the bend. For this reason INGESOA® spherical bends are provided with a concrete reinforced outlet pipe to avoid excessive wear.