Carried away: Belt conveyors for every distance

Troughed belt conveyors are the backbone of industrial process settings, conveying materials at every distance, from a few feet to a few miles. Confusion often arises, however, between what many call conventional (or plant) conveyors and overland conveyors. 

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Despite the difference in nomenclature, these two conveyor types are largely the same, with only a few differences when the conveyor will be required to traverse long distances. 

Though no formal definition exists, an overland conveyor is generally considered to be any conveyor intended to traverse some distance of terrain, from several hundred feet up to several miles, while a plant conveyor is intended to carry material shorter distances (less than several hundred feet), though there is some overlap in between. 

Overland conveyors are typically sized to offer a continuous means of transport that can replace discrete truck haulage between points. These conveyors are often faster and use wider belts than plant conveyors to achieve capacities that are competitive with truck haulage. 

Energy generation

One of the primary differences between a plant conveyor and an overland conveyor is that the long distances typical of overland settings can provide the opportunity for energy generation where a section of the conveyor traverses a decline. In an overland setting, the kinetic energy of material traveling downhill on a conveyor can be captured and converted into electricity using inverter-duty motors paired with variable frequency drives (VFDs). This electricity can then be sold back to the grid to supplement energy costs. 

In non-overland settings, conveyors with a decline are rarely long enough or steep enough to generate enough electricity to offset their inherent resistances. 

Construction

A few key design differences between plant and overland conveyors help each better suit its intended application. 

Foundation requirements. Plant conveyors tend to be mounted on poured cement foundations using anchor bolts. The concrete foundation is poured based on the unit&#;s expected load. This type of foundation would not only be extremely costly in an overland setting but would also be impractical considering the changes in terrain. 

Instead, overland conveyor manufacturers typically use concrete sleepers or simple Sonotube-type foundations placed throughout the landscape to support the unit. The sleepers are placed as needed and buried to support the unit, allowing the installer to make height adjustments along the terrain without requiring the excessive earthwork needed for a concrete pad. This also can help installers avoid challenging soil types where possible.

NEWS

 

Optimum Belt Monitoring

World Coal magazine (I-) has published an article about the optimum method of monitoring conveyor belts. The radiographic CBGuard system provides real-time information and automatic alerts about any failure of a steel cord conveyor belt.

 

Dune Express
The Dune Express, with 67 km path, will be world's second longest conveyor system, incorporating a 26 km long single flight. The belts, made in China, will convey sand from Texas to New Mexico (USA). Commissioning is scheduled for end of .

 

Fenner Dunlop

Fenner Dunlop BV and Fenner Dunlop Americas will jointly be using the "Fenner Dunlop Conveyor Belting" brand as of  January . Dunlop Belting Products in South Africa, as a separate organisation, is of course not affected.

 

Belt Conveyor "Time Bombs"
Alspaugh makes the point in an October white paper that contingencies due to inadequate design, environmental factors, changing operating conditions, etc., increase the risk of serious belt conveyor accidents.

This is particularly true for conveyor belts, which suffer greatly from dynamic loading and unstoppable aging.

 

Need for monitoring and maintenance

The Engineering & Mining Journal reminds in its October issue of the need for monitoring and maintenance of long belt  conveyors. They cite two examples: Copper output at Rio Tinto&#;s Kennecott mine in Utah (USA) dropped by 36%year-on-year between and due to a conveyor problem. Conveyor availability problems also hindered production at the Escondida copper mine in northern Chile.

 

Belt riding accident

Glencore has released a video of a miner who lost a leg in an unlawful belt ride.

 

Belt maintenance

In Dry Bulk magazine, issue Spring , it was correctly pointed out that conveyor belts are the parts of a conveyor system that require the most maintenance and are most frequently affected by failures. Best possible monitoring is essential.

 

"A bigger price to pay"

In an article in Global Mining Review Jan/Feb , the Dutch belt manufacturer Dunlop warns against cheap conveyor belts from China with allegedly inferior quality. The essay sounds like it was written in the s. It glosses over the enormous transformation brought about by massive investments in recent decades that have lifted Chinese manufacturers to the international level.

 

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"Carbon-neutral" conveyor belt

The Chinese belt manufacturer Wuxi Boton claims to have supplied world's first carbon-neutral conveyor belt to a BHP mine in Chile end of . It supposedly conforms to BSI PAS standard. No information was provided on the composition of the rubber compound and the belt characteristics, except for "using high quality carbon offsets".

 

Conveyor belt hazards

In its latest issue 4- (October), World Coal evaluates different conveyor belt monitoring methods. Predictive maintenance and accident prevention are of paramount importance for the safe and economical operation of long conveyor systems. Intelligent, fully automatic radiographic scanner systems meet these requirements in real time.

 

New age maintenance

International Mining reports in their January issue that machine and plant uptime continue to be focus areas for

mining companies looking at maintaining or boosting production levels in the face of labour shortages and site-level access restrictions.
This is particularly true for conveyor belts, which are among the most heavily used parts in the mining industry.

 

Fugitive material in conveyors

In the article Fugitive material - a preventable enemy of bulk conveying, published in World Coal in December , the considerable consequences of insufficient cleaning or maintenance of conveyor systems are impressively described.

Fugitive material - spillage, dust, carryback etc. - must be addressed, because it can cause downtime, safety incidents, excessive cleaning costs and poor PR.

 

Predictive maintenance and accident prevention

Fully automatic complete monitoring of steel cord conveyor belts in real time ensuring accident prevention and prescriptive maintenance results is highlighted in the February issue of International Mining.

 

Continental to use one brand only

Germany based conveyor belt manufacturer Continental has informed in January that it will be giving up its various conveyor belt brands including top class Phoenix, and will keep their Continental brand only.
The portfolio is to be expanded to include drones for checking conveyor idlers.

 

Conveyor Belt App from Fenner Dunlop BV

Dunlop has launched a simple, nice App called Belt Buddy, with some calculation tools and technical guidance on their product range.

 

ST conveyor belt at Vale's S11D replaced

Following a report of -05-06, Vale has just replaced 14 km of their ST conveyor belts. S11D, world's largest truckless mine, was inaugurated 4 years ago. Such a belt has a normal life expectancy of some 15 years. Possibly, the failure of the belts was not recognized in time, so that the replacement belts had to be delivered on Antonov aircrafts.

 

Conveyor belt monitoring in times of a crises like Covid-19

International Mining has published a report about the importance of autonomous real-time monitoring of steel-cord conveyor belts:

https://im-mining.com//04/30/autonomous-conveyor-belt-condition-monitoring-times-crisis/

 

Belt life expectancy

In his article Choosing the right belt, published in ABHR Jan , Steve Davis describes the wear and failures of conveyor belts as a result of bendings and other stresses.

 

Young splicer fatally injured by a conveyor belt

A 21-year old splicer was killed by the rebounding end of a ruptured conveyor belt splice end of December in a coal mine, as per preliminary reports from MSHA USA.

 

Highest capacity Pipe Conveyor Belt

Two pipe conveyor belts, made by CMH, with a diameter of 500 mm, carrying t/h of iron ore at a speed of  5,15 m/s, have been commissioned at a loading facility in China in . A video has been released on youtube by Beumer in October .

 

Importance of real-time conveyor belt condition monitoring still underestimated

E&MJ (Engineering & Mining Journal) reported in its May issue that on the progress of mining's move to digital transformation, financial departments may have difficulty recognizing digital value that is not readily apparent on a balance sheet. Predictive maintenance that helps avoid a repair cost can be difficult to quantify.

 

ST belt commissioned in Chile

The conveyor belt with world's highest tension rating has recently been commissioned at Codelco's new Chuquicamata underground copper mine.

 

End of the strongest underground conveyor belt to date

With the end of German hard coal mining, the strongest underground conveyor belt, ST, ceased operation in December .

The video on top of this page shows this system. The mine Prosper-Haniel was the last one to close. It was the most economic mine thanks to the state-of-the-art conveying technology.

 

FennerDunlop reviving Aramide belts

FennerDunlop, one of the leading manufacturers of conveyor belts, is reviving presumed-dead aramide (trademarks Kevlar, Twaron) conveyor belts.

haichuan are exported all over the world and different industries with quality first. Our belief is to provide our customers with more and better high value-added products. Let's create a better future together.

 

Six miners killed in a conveyor belt disaster
South Africa's Minister of Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, said on -07-18: &#;We reiterate our call to mining companies to prioritise the safety of employees at all times. The department of mineral resources will proceed with an investigation into the cause of the accident at Palabora Mining Company, soon after the fire underground has been extinguished and the area is declared safe.&#;

Unnecessary interruptions

The CIM Magazine (Canadian Institute of Mining) has published an interesting article named Unnecessary interruptions about improved material handling through smarter modelling, design and monitoring.

 

Africa's longest belt inaugurated

Sasol has inaugurated its Shondoni coal mine in July , to which Africa's longest conveyor belt with a center distance of  21 km belongs.

 

Semperit closing down factory in China

Sempertrans has closed down their conveyor belt factory in China (Shandong) in June .

 

Belt fire at port

A belt fire at Port Kembla in Australia in June , that appears to have been caused by a defective idler roller bearing, has led to considerable damage. Fortunately, no people have been harmed. 70 firefighters were busy extinguishing the open fire for days.

 

Continental: "Lease conveyor belts, don't buy"

Belt manufacturer ContiTech is stating on the Hannover Fair in April that the future will be leasing conveyor belts instead of buying them. Info about how the used belts will be taken back was not given.

 

Dynamic splice tester inaugurated in China

World's biggest conveyor belt factory has inaugurated a huge dynamic splice tester as per DIN part 3.
Its pulleys have a diameter of mm, the cylinders have a stroke of 900 mm and the tension range is from 300 to kN.

 

New conveyor safety handbook
Martin Engineering has published its first edition of their Foundations conveyor safety handbook.

 

Vale inaugurated world's largest truckless mine

On .12.17, Vale inaugurated world's largest mining project ever, with a production of 90 Mt/a of iron ore to be reached in . S11D is a truckless mine with a total belt conveyor length of 68 km. The system replaces traditional mining trucks (OHT); 100 of them with a capacity of 240 t would have been required. Without trucks, Vale reduces fuel consumption by 80 %, and significantly reduces waste such as tires, filters and lubricants. There will be at least 50 % of greenhouse gas emissions (= 130.000 t of CO2) less per year. And 18.000 MWh/a of electricity are going to be saved.

 

New fast overlands in Indonesia
Two of the fastest overland conveyor belts have been commissioned in Indonesia in November , running at speeds of 7,5 and 8,5 m/s. They are bringing KPC's coal from the mine to the port.

 

Pathbreaking belt monitoring

Nonstop conveyor belt monitoring based on X-ray technology is about to revolutionize long distance conveyor belt performance. Virtually every cubic millimeter of a conveyor belt is scrutinized. It is the perfect part of Preventive Maintenance and Industrial Internet of Things. More...

 

S11D truckless mine update

Some 90% of Vale's S11D truckless mine in Brazil with an investment of USD 17 billion have been completed in September. It is the largest iron ore mining project in the world.

 

ARPM Handbook 5

A new edition of the American Conveyor and Elevator Belt Handbook has been published. It is available at USD 225 for non-members.

 

New requirements in China's coal industry

Subsequent to a decree of May , according to which main steel cord conveyor belts have to be equipped with a belt and splice health monitoring device, a further tightening is coming into force: As of October , all belt conveyors must be equipped with a rip detection device.

China is by far the world's largest consumer of conveyor belts.

 

St
Codelco Chile has awarded the supply of the most powerful belt conveyor system for their Chuquicamata underground expansion project to Takraf Germany. It includes St conveyor belts, a new strength record.

 

Production stop

Contitech has stopped their conveyor belt production in Volos, Greece (the factory was also known as "Imas") in March . 138 employees were laid off. The inventory is for sale.

The same fate strikes their plant in Bowmanville, Canada.

Their steel cord belt plant in Brazil is for sale.

 

AS

An Australian standard for the indentation rolling resistance is under development and expected to be published early .

 

Revised standards

In November , revision of EN DIN , and in October , revision of DIN -1 have been released.

 

Longest belt

A new record length belt at Sasol's Impumelelo project in South Africa has been commissioned in October . The single-flight conveyor is 27 km long. It is equipped with a / St 7/5 belt made in China. More...

 

New Standard

ISO , published in October : Steel cord conveyor belts - Cord-to-coating bond test.

 

DIN -4

Revision of DIN part 4, splicing, published in August .

 

Revision of AS

In 4Q15, Australia's current conveyor safety standard AS will be superseded by a series of new standards under AS, where part will cover belt conveyors for bulk material handling.

 

Takeover

Germany's Continental/ContiTech has taken over US based Veyance Technologies, effective on 30.Jan. , creating world's biggest conveyor belt manufacturing group, eliminating Goodyear/Veyance from the conveyor belt market.

 

CEMA

The new 7th edition of the CEMA handbook has adapted the calculation principle of DIN .

 

Man-riding

We have added a video on so-called "man-riding", practiced in Germany.

 

New standard

The revised DIN for textile conveyor belts has been published in January .

 

First standard for indentation rolling resistance of conveyor belts - DIN

This first-time standard has been published in October . More about IRR...

 

One component adhesive

A new kind of adhesive for cold splicing and repairing of conveyor belts has been launched. This one-component glue makes warehousing and dispatch easier, no activation is necessary, errors by wrong dosage of activator are eliminated, there is no vulcanization in the tin.

 

Draft revised standards published

E DIN -1 () - Solid woven textile conveyor belts for hard coal underground mining

E DIN -2 () - Two-ply textile conveyor belts for hard coal underground mining

E DIN -4 () - Two-ply textile belts for hard coal above ground use

E DIN -3 () - Dynamic splice test

E DIN () - Textile belt splices for hard coal underground mining.

For a complete list of standards see here.

 

Smart conveyor belt design

A smart way to design conveyor belts as per DIN ( or issues) employing dynamic splice efficiency, is reducing the belt rating and bringing down overall costs. It is described in a paper called "State-of-the-art long distance conveyor belt design" published in Coal Asia Magazine.

 

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