Patent ID: 7669708

Claim:
A bulk material handling apparatus, comprising a bulk material conveyor comprising a belt to convey bulk material, a scraping member to scrape bulk material from the belt of the bulk material conveyor belt, the scraping member having a movement sensor associated therewith to generate a status signal indicative of movement of the scraping member, a damper coupled to the scraping member, the damper to dampen movement of the scraping member based upon a control signal, a controller to generate the control signal of the damper based upon the status signal, a positioning mechanism to position the scraping member with respect to the belt of the bulk material conveyor, and a temperature sensor to generate a temperature signal indicative of temperature of the belt, the bulk material, and/or the scraping member, wherein the controller generates signals that result in the position mechanism retracting the scraping member away from the belt of the bulk material conveyor in response to the temperature signal indicating the temperature of the belt, the bulk material, and/or the scraping member has left a specified range.