Re-Profiling Trippe ers to Re educe Spillage S e

Mark Bigg gs
AS PEC Engine eering Keyword ds: Trippers, conveyors

Abstrac ct
Trippers are widely used u to deliv ver material from f a yard or o wharf con nveyor to a stacker s or shipload der. The desig gn of the tripp per should be e integrated with w the desig gn of the yard d or wharf conveyo or because the optimum tr ripper profile depends on the t belt tensiions. The lift t radius of the belt should s be cal lculated at the e head and ta ail ends of the e yard convey yor for full, em mpty, start and stop p conditions. Trippers sho ould be profil led with a con nvex buffer c curve near the t toe to prevent edge e buckling g of the belt w which results in spillage.

Whe en a conveyo or belt is pick ked up by a tripper it for rms a co oncave curve e where it is suspended in the air ne ear the toe t of the trip pper. The ra adius of this concave cu rve depe ends on the mass per meter m and the e tension in the belt. The curvature causes the tension to drop in the es of the belt t and rise in the t centre of f the belt. If the edge average belt ten nsion is low enough, the e edges of the compression n and buckle. This typica ally belt will go into c of support fo or the load an nd spillage fr rom results in a lack o e of the belt. the edges The most widely y adopted so olution to this s problem is s to gn a convex buffer curve e profile nea ar the toe of the desig tripper. The convex curve ha as the oppos site effect to the cave curve. It increases the tension in the edges s of conc the belt b and dec creases the tension t in the centre of the belt. This acts to keep tension in the e edges at the vex lift radius s and prevent the buckling problem. conv While modern m machine des signers are aware of t this e, there hav ve been ma achines cons structed in t issue the past that have st traight tripper r designs. These T machin nes cally suffer fr rom spillage e, especially if the angle e of typic the tripper t is qu uite steep. It is possib ble to re-pro ofile these e trippers w with a conv vex buffer curve c to fix or mitig gate the spilla age problem. The convex curv ve is designe ed so that the belt will m eet t tange entially for the t full rang ge of operat ting the tripper cond ditions. To de etermine this s, it is necess sary to analy yse the yard y conveyo or to define the t minimum m and maxim um belt lift radii, see Figure 1. The minim mum radius w will cally occur n near the tail end of the yard convey yor, typic

fu ully loaded under brakin ng conditions. The maximum ra adius will typ pically occur near the he ead end of th he yard conveyor, c em mpty under starting con nditions. Di ifferent designers d have come up p with particu ular techniqu ues for dimensioning d the convex buffer curve e geometry to suit th hese limiting upper and lo ower radii. Once O the bu uffer profile is determin ned, the new w belt profile p can be b laid out o over the ex xisting struct ture to determine d the e new idler lo ocations and the correspo onding steelwork s mo odifications. When W a conv vex profile is built onto a straight s tripp per, the id dlers through h the convex x curve are positioned p rel latively higher. h This will generally y require the hold down n roller assembly a to be b reposition ned to provid de clearance. If this is s the case, the t length of f belt remain ning in contact with th he idlers at the head of f the tripper r (when the belt is ru unning emp pty) should be checke ed, otherwise belt tr raining problems may b be introduced d. It may also a be necessary n to extend the toe of the tripper in or rder to mount m the firs st few idler s sets correctly y. The first id dler set should s be as s low as pos ssible without clashing with w the yard y conveyo or. An A importan nt consider ration when n designing g the steelwork s modifications, particularly y for Shiplo oaders which w are oft ten highly ut tilised, is the e outage durations available. a One solution is to desi ign the ste eelwork modifications m s with bolte ed connectio ons so in sections th hey can be installed in n several short outages with minimal m site welding. w

PEC AspecTech hnical Article, Ap pril 2012

An example e of a re-profiled tr ripper is show wn in Figure 2.

Ever ry effort ha as been made m to en nsure that the inform mation conta ained in this article is cor rrect. Howev ver, Aspe ec Engineeri ing Pty Ltd or its emplo oyees take no respo onsibility for a any errors, omissions o or inaccuracies s.

Figure 1 - T Tripper desig gn concepts s1

Ne ew stringers and a packers to o pr rofile belt

Raise overhead struc ctures

Extension n at tripper toe e

Fig gure 2 - Exam mple of a re e-profiled tripper

1

Be elt Conveyor Trippers Des sign Philosop phy and Tec chniques, D.E E. Beckley, Bulk B Solids H Handling, Volume 3, Num mber 4, November 1983 3.

PEC AspecTech hnical Article, Ap pril 2012