Characteristics and technical advantages of belt conveyors

Features of belt conveyor

Belt conveyors are continuous transportation equipment in coal mines. Compared with other transportation equipment (such as locomotives), they have the advantages of long conveying distance, large transportation capacity, and continuous conveying. Moreover, they operate reliably and are easy to achieve automation and centralized control. Especially for high-yield mines, belt conveyors have become key equipment in the technology and equipment of coal mining mechatronics.

The main features of the belt conveyor are that the body can be conveniently extended and retracted, it is equipped with a belt storage bin, the tail end can be extended or shortened along with the advancement of the coal mining face, the structure is compact, no foundation is required, and it can be directly laid on the floor of the tunnel. The frame is light and easy to disassemble and assemble. When the conveying capacity and distance are large, an intermediate drive device can be equipped to meet the requirements. According to the requirements of the conveying process, it can be used for single machine conveying or multiple machines can be combined into a horizontal or inclined transportation system to convey materials.

Belt conveyors are widely used in metallurgy, coal, transportation, hydropower, chemical and other sectors because they have the advantages of large conveying capacity, simple structure, convenient maintenance, low cost and strong versatility.

Belt conveyors are also applied in sectors such as building materials, power, light industry, grain, ports, and shipping.

Belt conveyor composition

General belt conveyors are composed of conveyor belts, idlers, rollers, and devices such as drive, braking, tensioning, redirecting, loading, unloading, and cleaning.

There are two common types of conveyor belts: rubber belts and plastic belts. Rubber belts are suitable for working environments with temperatures ranging from -15 °C to 40°C. The material temperature should not exceed 50°C. The inclination Angle for upward conveying of bulk materials is 12° to 24°. For large-inclination Angle conveying, patterned rubber belts can be used. Plastic tape has the advantages of being resistant to oil, acid and alkali, but it has poor adaptability to climate and is prone to slipping and aging. Bandwidth is the main technical parameter of belt conveyors.

Idlers are classified into single rollers (with a wrap Angle of 210° to 230° between the belt and the rollers), double rollers (with a wrap Angle of up to 350°), and multiple rollers (used for high power), etc. There are trough idlers, flat idlers, self-aligning idlers and buffer idlers. The trough-shaped idler (consisting of 2 to 5 rollers) supports the load-bearing branch and is used for conveying bulk materials. Self-aligning idlers are used to adjust the lateral position of the belt to prevent it from deviating. Buffer idlers are installed at the receiving point to reduce the impact of materials on the belt.

Rollers are divided into drive rollers and redirecting rollers. The drive roller is the main component for transmitting power. It is divided into single drum (with the wrap Angle of the belt to the drum being 210° to 230°), double drum (with a wrap Angle of up to 350°) and multi-drum (used for high power), etc.

The tensioning device is designed to ensure that the conveyor belt reaches the necessary tension to prevent slippage on the drive rollers and to keep the deflection of the conveyor belt between the idlers within the specified range.

Technical advantages of belt conveyors

First of all, it operates reliably. Belt conveyors are widely used in many important production units that require continuous operation, such as the transportation of coal in power plants, the transportation of bulk materials in steel mills and cement plants, as well as the loading and unloading of ships in ports. If the machine stops working in these situations, the losses will be huge. When necessary, the belt conveyor can work continuously from shift to shift.

The belt conveyor has low power consumption. As the material and the conveyor belt have almost no relative movement, not only is the running resistance small (about 1/3 to 1/5 of that of the scraper conveyor), but also the wear and breakage of the cargo are small, and the productivity is high. All of these are conducive to reducing production costs.

The conveying line of the belt conveyor is highly adaptable and flexible. The length of the line is determined as needed. It can be as short as a few meters and as long as over 10 kilometers. It can be installed in small tunnels or erected above areas with chaotic and dangerous ground traffic.

According to the requirements of the process flow, the belt conveyor can very flexibly receive materials from one or more points. It is also possible to discharge materials to multiple points or several sections. When materials are added to the conveyor belt at several points simultaneously (such as the conveyor under the coal bunker in a coal preparation plant) or at any point along the length of the belt conveyor through uniform feeding equipment, the belt conveyor becomes a major conveying trunk line.

Belt conveyors can take materials from the tunnels beneath the material piles in the coal storage yard. When necessary, they can also mix different materials from each pile. The materials can be simply discharged from the head of the conveyor, or they can be discharged at any point along the length of the conveyor belt through a plow-type unloader or a mobile unloader.