COMMON CONVEYOR PROBLEMS AND BEST-PRACTICE MAINTENANCE APPROACHES Lost production is a major direct cost that quarries and mines contend with when a conveyor system goes down. Some of the most common conveyor issues include belt misalignment, material carryback and rip events, amongst others.
D rawing on decades of field experience, of the best-practice maintenance approaches to keeping conveyors at peak performance. One of the most common causes of unscheduled downtime on conveyor systems is belt misalignment which often results in spillage, belt edge damage, damage to the structure, increased power consumption and increased labour costs. According to Guy Fitt, National Sales Manager at Tru-Trac, a specialist provider of conveyor components for the global mining and bulk material handling industries, misaligned belts will ultimately result in lost production, increased operating costs and safety hazards. Douglas van der Westhuizen, Tru-Trac’s Douglas van der Westhuizen and Guy Fitt outline some
Technical Sales Representative at Tru-Trac, says misaligned belts can also result in environmental issues by increasing material spillage and dust generation which can contaminate nearby ecosystems and water sources, lead to regulatory non-compliance and negatively affect the health of both workers and nearby communities. Apart from belt misalignment, carryback is another common enemy in conveyor systems. Carryback directly reduces conveyor productivity by creating unscheduled downtime for cleanup, degrading components such as rollers and pulleys and causing material loss and leading to belt tracking issues that necessitate further maintenance. Carryback represents loss of product, which, over time, can add up to significant financial costs, especially in systems handling
large volumes,” says Fitt. Commenting on some of the best-practice maintenance approaches to keeping conveyors at peak performance, Fitt says that continuous inspection is one of the principal approaches to making sure that conveyor systems function optimally. With Regular inspections with Tru-Trac support help mines and quarries identify issues early ensuring safer, more reliable and more efficient conveyor operation.
In fact, these should be the principal areas of concern whenever trying to identify belt tracking problems. All pulleys, snub rollers, troughing and return idlers must be square with the frame parallel to each other, and also be level.
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