Drive Rollers to Increase the Capacity of Belt Conveyors

The University of Hannover is working on the development of alternative drive concepts for belt conveyor systems to increase the limits of the conveying length and capacity. As a part of this, one focus is set on the application of Drive Rollers as intermediate drives to reduce the belt tension. Within this research project, the field application and limits for different use cases are investigated and technical issues shall be clarified. At first, measurements were performed on a test rig to determine the force transmission between Drive Roller and conveyor belt for different parameters like the idler coating, idler diameters or the influence of the vertical load. Since the force transmission is limited due to a small contact area, multiple drives along the conveyor are required and the risk of slip between Drive Roller and belt is increased. The control concept is specifically developed to ensure a safe operation with a low wear rate of the belt. Furthermore, the distribution of the individual Drive Roller controls are based on a permanent data exchange, which allows a real-time monitoring of the complete conveyor system. Besides the laboratory investigations, the project partner BHP Billiton installed one Drive Roller at a Port Hedland belt conveyor to prove that the head drive power can be reduced, when keeping the capacity constant. On this occasion, different objectives were investigated under field conditions to enable the installation of multiple drives. [674]