Between the 2 end pulleys of a conveyor, the belt must be supported under the feed section, then throughout of conveyor, for the carrying and bottom sides.
What are the distances between all these idlers?
For relevant calculations, calculating conveyors requires a large amount of data. However, this requires a thorough knowledge of the domain and a lot of time, as well as the exploitation of the data and the execution of the calculations, with the optimizations, the iterations.
Without relevant calculation no CE certification, no mechanical results guaranteed!
ANNEX I / Regulatory bases (extract)
Everyone wants clean, economical, efficient and robust conveyors with a very high level of safety. The rate of the filling factor of the belt largely participates in achieving this ideal. So why so many conveyors operate with a load factor close to 50%, see less? Would you accept that your trucks run at half load? … Certainly not !
This article is valid only if the operators have strictly applied the prerequisites developed in our article / 1st part, under the title “Control of the belt trajectory of conveyor and control of the vagaries – The prerequisites“.
This second part contains adjustment procedures and adjustment tolerances to “warranty” the correct geometrical position of the conveyor components that influence the path of the belt.
Because the safety of the operators is the 1st commandment of the companies, the procedures of adjustment, described in this article, answer them with the highest safety, for an unparalleled speed, efficiency and durability.
The conveyor belt conveyor is a “complicated” machine, whose “equation” must be “simplified” and “neutralized” the remaining parameters by controlling the adjustment uncertainties. Our article appeared under the title “Design, New Approach”, focuses on simplifying the design of conveyors. It is essential to the understanding of these articles parts 1 & 2.
On the other hand, the best setting, with the tightest fit tolerances, will not work if the influential components are not compliant. These are the prerequisites!
Belt cleaning is a recurring problem for conveyor operators. Since the end of the 1980s, this operation has become crucial to guarantee the reliability, cleanliness and safety of bulk handling by conveyors. Many scraper models have developed and these materials have reached a high level of technicality. On the other hand, the belt, a major element of the “cleanliness” problem, has not benefited from any significant progress on this point.
Integrating a mechanical subassembly into a machine requires ensuring the good mechanical compatibility of the various elements present. Integrating a scraper into a conveyor is no exception. In our history, we had to consider the technical criteria of the belt and its environment.
Like many inventions, the conveyor belt has evolved according to the events that have raised questions with the users and the builders. Since 1989, European States have been concerned about the safety of machines, through the Machinery Directives (current version: 2006/42/CE).
Today, the big question is to understand why, despite all the efforts in terms of safety, there are still too many accidents on the conveyors with, especially, causes similar to those of the old times. To answer the question, this article focuses on ”understanding standards, proposing solutions and show the added benefits” by means of examples.
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The complexity of regulations, the strength of habits, the cost of technical and security standards, both in the acquisition of documents, their reading and understanding, their business transposition, expose to a major risk of CE certification “insincere”, in particular in the case of machinery falling within category C standards (a standard dealing with detailed safety requirements for a particular machine or group of machines)
In certain trades, such as continuous conveyor belt bulk handling, which falls under EN 620 (category C), I have observed that a very large number of conveyors, bearing the CE mark, do not respond strictly to the safety requirements of the Machinery Directive 2006/42 / EC and repeated by the category A standard, reference EN ISO 12100v2010.
Can there be innovation in the design of banal machines, such as conveyors?
Can we improve the technical, economic and safety performances, for a high level of reliability and robustness, machines we know everything about? … and respecting the state-of-the-art!
You are an engineering firm, builder, manufacturer of components for conveyor, belt manufacturer, you are operator, then the examples below will challenge you and open perspectives for your projects in new works and rehabilitation.