Aspects of Selecting Appropriate Conveyor Belt Strength

1. Introduction

Belt conveyors are an indispensable means of transport in a number of industry branches&#;most importantly, in the extraction industry, in smelting and coking plants, and in power plants, but also in the chemical industry, in civil engineering and in agriculture. Belt conveyors are also vital in shipping ports, where they are used to transport, load and unload bulk materials. In the extraction industry, conveyor belt transportation systems are used both in surface and in underground mining. The belt is the most expensive part of the belt conveyor. Its purchase cost represents 50&#;60% of the cost of the entire conveyor. The belt is also the least durable element of the conveyor. The belt is, thus, an element crucial for the effective and reliable operation of the conveyor and significantly influences the transportation costs [ 1 ].

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The selection of a conveyor belt capable of performing a particular transportation task when installed on a belt conveyor is primarily informed by the tensile strength of this belt. It is intended to ensure that the forces in the operating belt will not lead to it breaking, i.e., to an event that is dangerous to both the personnel and to the conveyor. Typically, in the belt conveyor design process, the values of safety factors are empirically identified [ 2 3 ].

The belt is installed on the conveyor in a closed loop. The type of the splices used in the belt depends mainly on the design of the belt core. In most cases, splices have the lowest strength in the entire belt. Nevertheless, occasionally, breaks develop not in the area of the splice, but in the so-called &#;continuous&#; belt section. Reasons for such events are an object of investigation. This article analyzes two aspects, which deserve attention when selecting an appropriate belt to match the conveyor&#;the non-uniformity of belt loads in the transition section of the conveyor, where the belt changes its shape from troughed into flat to enter the pulley, and the influence of the specimen width on the belt strength. Aspects related to belt damage during its operation (punctures, cuts, etc.) are here omitted, although obviously, they are important and monitored by conveyor operators [ 4 7 ]. The analysis here presented is supported by many years of experience gained as a result of testing conveyor belts at the Belt Conveying Laboratory, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (WUST).

When implementing a particular transportation task, the force levels in the belt and the power of the drive system are identified after calculating conveyor resistances to motion and the minimal tensile force required to ensure frictive engagement between the pulley and the belt. Köken et al. reviewed and compared leading methods used in belt conveyor calculations [ 8 ].

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In the transition section of the conveyor, the outermost load-carrying elements of the core accept additional tensile loads, while the loads in the central part of the belt decrease. In the existing calculation methods, the length of the transition section should be defined in such a manner that the non-uniformity of belt loads is reduced and unit forces in the belt are not exceeded. That CEMA method [ 9 ] defines the minimum length of the transition section depending on the geometrical parameters of the section and differentiates between only two groups of belts: with steel cord and with textile core. Importantly, however, textile core belts may significantly differ with respect to their elastic properties and show different reactions in response to geometry changes of the transition section. The Fenner&#;Dunlop method has a similar approach to the identification of the transition section [ 10 ]. In the DIN method [ 11 ], the length of the transition section is calculated on the basis of simplified relationships, but with allowance for the longitudinal elastic modulus of the belt.

Accurate identification of the stress state in the belt along the transition section requires a model that allows for not only the longitudinal elastic modulus of the belt, but also for the interactions between the adjacent cables or straps in the belt. Oehmen [ 12 ] and Hager and Tappeiner [ 13 ] focused in their research on identifying the strain state in the belt along the transition section. Schmandra [ 14 ] presented a general theoretical model of a steel cord belt, allowing for the interactions between the adjacent cables. The literature also mentions implementations of the finite element method in the modeling of a belt along the transition section of the conveyor [ 15 18 ]. The analysis in [ 17 ] focused on the influence of the elastic modulus in the longitudinal and transverse directions of the belt-on-belt load non-uniformity.

The research here presented involves developing a universal theoretical model of the belt along a transition section of a conveyor in which, in the case of steel-cord belts, the belt is composed of cords and layers of rubber, and in the case of a textile belt, of narrow strips. An analysis was performed into how the non-uniformity of the belt load along the transition section of the conveyor will change if belts with different cores are used. The research also involved tests of the influence of the specimen width on the belt tensile strength. The literature does not mention any results of similar previous studies.

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