Conveyor belts

By Nallam Satyaabhiram ME1327

Conveyor belts
A conveyor belt consists of two or more pulleys in a loop to rotate it. Thus displacement of the belt is observed. This is also made possible by gravity based rather motor driven. Material handling is made possible by conveyor belts.

 It consists of drive pulley and driven pulley. Driven pulley is the idler. One of the pulley is powered, moving on the belt and the material on the belt forward. Belt consists of one or more layers made of rubber according to the requirement. Material flowing through the belt could be weighed by belt weigher.

Manufacture of conveyor belt

The conveyor belt consists of rollers made up of stainless steel. Each roller consists of shaft in the centre whose edges are flattened. These flattened edges are either welded or fixed conventionally to a frame according to the requirement. The roller has ball bearings such that rotation is possible.

 The rollers have a groove in the centre such that an additional belt for support could be provided. The conveyor belt starts with an driven roller and ends with an drive roller. This drive roller is connected to a motor

Design calibrations
Speed is inversely proportional to torque.

Speed N=

120

Therefore N =1550 1440 rpm. Reduction gear =1:40 ratio That is 1440/40 =36 RPM.

 Drive roller = 100 mm dia (say). Therefore radius = 50 mm. Circumference of the roller =2r =314mm/min. Therefore displacement of roller is 314 mm/min.

 In earlier days these many number of considerations, calculations were to be solved. Nowadays by using VFD we can vary the speed of the electric motors which in turn governs the conveyor speed. Thus todays technology along with innovation has made possible 24 km long conveyor belt for material handling in China.

Gravity pulled roller

Motor driven conveyor belt