Strategies to Minimize Conveyor Idler Loss and Enhance Performance

We all know that conveyor idlers are one of the most consumed parts of conveyor lines. For example, two 13km belt conveyors in a limestone mine carry nearly 4 million tons of ore materials each year. Starting from 2018, the annual consumption of conveyor idlers is about 80,000 US dollars, from the perspective of the proportion of the annual conveyor idler cost, the first is the troughing idler, accounting for 56% of the annual idler cost, the second is the return conveyor idler, accounting for 12.7% of the annual idler cost. Therefore, in order to reduce the cost of idlers, the loss of these two conveyor idlers must first be reduced.

First of all, it is necessary to find out the cause of the damage to the trough-shaped carrying idler and the return idler. According to experience and search data, there are:

(1) Wear of the carrying idler tube body

The wear of the supporting idler is mainly the middle part of the idler tube body, mainly because the tube body is thinned or even broken, and the wear of some idlers in contact with the edge of the conveyor belt can also cause breakage.

The main reasons are:

① The friction resistance between the idler and the conveyor belt is large, and the rotation resistance of the carrying idler is relatively large, resulting in an increase in the friction coefficient.

②The formation of deflection friction resistance leads to wear, which comes from the deviation between the rotation direction of the conveyor idler and the running direction of the conveyor belt.

③The conveyor idler directly rubs against the splicing or the damaged part of the material conveyor belt, and the operating environment of the conveyor idler itself is harsh.

(2) The idler bearing is damaged

The main problem of the idler bearing is that the rotation is not flexible, the bearing points are worn out, and the serious corrosion causes the idler to not rotate.

The main reasons are:

①Conveyor idler bearing are poorly sealed, resulting in grease contamination, resulting in poor lubrication and damage to the bearings.

② The design of the whole machine is unreasonable, and it will resonate with the idler, which will accelerate the damage of the bearing;

③ The lubricating grease content of the conveyor idler assembly and filling is less, or the quality of the lubricating grease is poor, resulting in lubrication failure and damage;

④ Unreasonable selection of conveyor idlers, such as too small diameters of conveyor idlers and shafts, and too thin tubes, resulting in damage to the life of the bearings.

Solution:

(1) Make statistics and on-site surveys on the replacement cycle of the conveyor idlers, and correct the problems such as the undulations of the conveyor brackets, uneven left and right, too long distance between brackets, and uneven installation, especially for the carrying idler parts, so that the design of the whole conveyor machine and the layout of the conveyor idlers are more reasonable, avoiding local force overload, reducing the layout spacing of the convex sections of the conveyor idlers, increasing the number of idlers, reducing the force of a single idler, and achieving the trough-type forward-leaning idler and comb The extension of the service life of the conveyor idler.

(2) Clean up ash and ore deposits, improve the harsh environment during the operation of the idlers, correct the phenomenon of ash deposits, ore deposits and burials along the belt conveyor production line, and avoid direct contact between hardware of belt splicing part, fix the broken part of conveyor belt in time, to prolongs the service life of the conveyor idler.

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