Hoppers & Feeders
Belt Feeder Design:
Starting Load Calculations
A.E. Maton, Australia
Proper function of the hopper/feeder interface is vital
for efficient operation of a majority of bulk material
handling facilities. Though research work on their
design is available since the 1980s, serious malfunc-
tions still occur. A suitable design is the best way to
avoid them, but even for existing installations efficient
solutions can be found.
I
n the late 1970s and early 1980s belt feeders were installed in
the iron ore and diamond mining industry. At the time so
called traditional methods were used which required an arbi-
trary starting factor. However, during commissioning, starting
problems were experienced which required modifications and/
or they continued to operate with reduced expectations of oper-
ating performance.
In the 1980s published research indicated the importance of
the hopper/feeder interface design. A review of the design of the
installed feeders supported the concept of the initial surcharge
factor to explain the minimum requirement to design belt feed-
ers to start under the worst case conditions.
Belt feeders starting loads under mass flow hoppers and bins
have, since the 1980s, in the iron ore industry used the concept
of an initial surcharge factor. This factor is based on the geomet-
rical shape of the mass flow hopper and the bulk material load
above the hopper due to a stockpile or a bin. However, there are
454 bulk solids handling · Vol. 29 · 2009 · No. 8
additional starting loads imposed on belt feeders due to the sag
between support idlers under the hopper.
Ongoing feasibility studies to install belt feeders in the iron ore
industry indicate that belt feeders are not economically feasible
even though they maybe technically feasible and, therefore,
apron feeders are usually preferred. It is also reported that there
are ongoing belt feeder starting problems in other industries.
This article revisits the 1980s publications and highlights an
area of belt feeder design not widely addressed. The additional
analysis includes using visco-elastic rubber properties and the
actual belt sag under the hopper when the initial surcharge fac-
tor is considered for starting feeder loads.
1 Introduction
Belt feeders were first installed in the Pilbara, Western Australia,
iron ore industry in 1979 in an heavy media separation plant.
They were installed under mass flow bins for metering the cor-
rect mix of magnetite and ferrosilicon to obtain the optimum
mixture of heavy media to separate iron ore particles from shale
particles.
Belt feeders were also installed to handle iron ore fines and
washed iron ore product, but these were plug-flow bins with suf-
ficiently smooth and steep hoppers which cleared completely of
stored material by gravity. The feeders under these bins are not
discussed in this article.
In 1983 belt feeders were installed in a diamond mine in West-
ern Australia. One, under a 15 000 tonne stockpile of kimberlite
 Hoppers & Feeders

Fig. 1: Magnetite and ferrosilicon Fig. 2: Stockpile feeder. Fig. 3: Expanded mass flow hopper.
mass flow bin.

ore and others under mass flow hoppers to control feed to ends, while for kimberlite ore a wedge hopper with a tapered
screens and tertiary crushers. The stockpile provides a buffer be- slot were recommended.
tween the intrinsic capacity of a primary crushing plant and a The hopper loads the feeder with a vertical force which for
processing plant and to control the feed to a wet scrubber. flow, the magnitude of the feeder load is given by:
The magnetite feeder under a mass flow bin and stockpile Q = q · ρb · L · B2
feeder handling kimberlite ore both experienced starting difficul- where:
ties which highlighted the need for more research to be under- Q feeder load [t]
taken in this area. q empirical parameter given by charts [1] [-]
In the later published research and methodologies [1-5] it was ρb bulk density [t/m3]
recommended that the feeder/hopper interface problems and L length of slot [m]
the concept of the initial surcharge factor need to be taken into B slot width [m]
account when estimating the starting loads on a belt feeder. Cur- This factor is small and is based on the assumption that the feed-
rently there are reported problems from other industries in er is efficient, i.e. there is no sliding of packed solids, the feeder
which there are belt feeder starting problems, see R et al. [6] design does not allow for outside pockets of material and con-
who suggest further research is required and if necessary to re- fining pressures from skirts.
vise procedures recommended in [7] and [8]. Starting loads maybe several times as much as running loads,
However, in this article, it is suggested that the belt feeder de- a factor of 10 has been measured [7]. Arching stresses which de-
sign should also take into account the induced forces due to belt velops during flow transfers the load to the hopper walls. The
sag between the idlers under the hopper and the visco-elastic starting force is particularly detrimental to belt feeders which
forces of idler/belt indentation resistance. In quantifying these rely on pre-tension for traction.
forces this article also suggests that a dynamic analysis method- During the design phase for these feeders an empirical meth-
ology is used to estimate the maximum starting loads on the od was used to assess the starting load; B for example [9].
belt. However, experience during commissioning showed that
these empirical methods underestimate the starting loads and
some of the original designs did not meet expectations.
2 Flowability Testwork
3.2 Later Theory
The flowability test work was undertaken using J [7] for fer-
rosilicon, magnetite and kimberlite ore; the results are shown in During the 1980s research was undertaken to address the
Table 1. starting loads, refer ML and A [1] and R et al.
The testwork also measures various liner materials for wall fric- [2-5, 8].
tion and provides recommendations for the hopper half angle.
The magnetite and ferrosilicon mass flow bins are lined with
stainless steel and the kimberlite ore expanded flow hoppers Table 1: Results of flowability test work.
were lined with bisalloy.
Magnetite Ferrosilicon Kimberlite
Bulk density σB [t/m3] 2.0 3.2 1.5
3 Review of Methodologies Used
Effective internal fric- 46 36 50
3.1 Early Theory tion angle δeff [°]
Static internal friction 35 35 40
In the 1970s the material flow properties tests were undertaken angle δstat [°]
using the J approach [7] with recommendations being giv- Wall friction angle ϕ [°] 35 28 25
en regarding the hopper outlet. In the case of the magnetite and
ferrosilicon bins a transition hopper using a slot with rounded Hopper half angle α [°] 20 20 28

bulk solids handling · Vol. 29 · 2009 · No. 8 455

 Hoppers & Feeders

Table 2: Mass flow bin and belt feeder details.

Magnetite bin Ferrosilicon bin Kimberlite stockpile Kimberlite bin

Sketches Fig. 1 Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3
Bin height H [m] 2.9 6.0 28 6.0
Hopper height h [m] 4.67 2.87 2.61 0.85
Hopper half angle α [°] 20.0 26.0 25.0 10
Outlet length L [m] 3.5 2.5 20.0 5.5
Outlet width B [m] 0.9 0.3 0.52 0.5
Feeder length Lf [m] 8.0 8.0 88.9 15.5
Feeder width b [m] 1.2 1.2 1.8 1.6
Speed v [m/s] 0.013 0.055 0.29 0.5
Capacity m• [t/h] 9.0 12.0 520 675
Installed Motor P [kW] 1.5 1.5 75 30

Generally the vertical load Qf for a plane flow hopper under flow feeders by using 20 degree and 35 degree troughing idlers re-
conditions is given as follows: spectively.
Qf = qf · ρb · L · B2 Spillage during initial loading when belt is empty can be con-
where: fined by installing a hungry board concept. Minor spurious drag
Qf vertical load under flow conditions [t] forces on hungry boards are ignored. Pre-loading of the hopper
qf empirical parameter for flow conditions [-] may be considered particularly after major maintenance shut-
From experience for belt feeders it is suggested that qf = 1 for down when the stockpiles are cleared or bins are emptied.
initial design due to uncertainty with regards to belt sag when It should also be noted that all feeders have electric/mechani-
hopper is full and belt stationary and drive motor selection and cal drives with the motors being standard squirrel cage TEFC 415
traction conditions are not finalized. When design is near finali- V 4 pole and speed control is varied using a VVVF controller. It is
zation then qf can be more accurately determined. important to know the torque characteristics of the motor. For
For initial conditions the vertical load for a plane flow hoppers the belt feeders in this article, the motor locked rotor torque pu
is given as follows: is noted in Table 3, the values are simply taken from a motor
Qi = qi · ρb · L · B2 manufacturer’s catalogue. Standard TEFC motors torque charac-
with [1]: teristics can be very variable and it is recommended that the mo-
2 · tan α · ( B + −1 )
1 2 · H · tan α
_D_ ________
qi = ______ D
tor locked rotor torque is tested before the selected motor is in-
where: stalled to ensure that the minimum motor locked rotor torque
Qi vertical load under initial conditions [t] requirement is exceeded. The mass flow bin and belt feeder de-
qi empirical parameter for initial conditions [-] tails are shown in Table 2 and Figs. 1, 2 and 3.
α hopper half angle [°]
H material head above hopper [m]
D hopper inlet width [m] 5 Calculations
B hopper outlet width [m]
The belt sag under these conditions must be addressed for esti- In this article the approach to feeder design is to assume it is a
mating starting torque requirements. belt conveyor to determine running conditions and methodolo-
gies such as [10, 11, 12] maybe used. Calculations according to
[12] are preferred as it takes account of the visco-elastic properties
4 Description of Belt Feeders of the belt particularly under the hopper slot i.e. belt/idler con-
tact losses and losses due to higher belt sag under the hopper.
All the feeder designs ensure that skirts are not required to con- The sag under the hopper must be carefully checked to ensure
tain the burden on the feeder and, therefore, the skirts do not the sags are limited particularly for the initial surcharge factor
impose drag loads on the feeder or restrict free flow from the conditions, excessive sag will compound increase in starting
hopper. This is achieved for the magnetite and ferrosilicon feed- loads, experience suggests that the sag is limited to less than 1.0
ers by using picking idlers and for kimberlite bin and stockpile percent.

Table 3: Calculation results for surcharge factor qi and motor locked rotor torque pu.
Magnetite bin Ferrosilicon bin Kimberlite stockpile Kimberlite bin
Surcharge factor qi 5.58 11.22 12.08 6.78
Required motor locked rotor torque pu,r [Nm] 2.76 2.62 2.14 2.2
Typical motor locked rotor torque pu,t [Nm] 2.9 2.9 2.3 2.4

456 bulk solids handling · Vol. 29 · 2009 · No. 8


Hopper loads are calculated in accordance with A [1],
with feeder running loads calculated using qf = 1.0 . The calcu-
lated values of qi and the minimum required motor locked rotor
torque are is shown in Table 3.
These results are for the belt feeders after modification. The
original design for the feeders which experienced starting prob-
lems is discussed in the next section.
6 Discussion
Ferrosilicon Feeder: During commissioning this feeder did
not experience starting problems under a full bin.
Magnetite Feeder: During commissioning this feeder was un-
able to start under a full bin.
The original design for this feeder was to deliver 18 tonnes per
hour with a belt speed of 0.026 meters per second. During the
commissioning a modification was made to reduce capacity to 9
tonnes per hour by reducing belt speed (drive ratio increase) to
0.013 meters per second.
The original speed required a motor locked rotor torque of
pu = 4.57 > 2.9 of the installed motor.
Kimberlite Stockpile Feeder: The original design for this
feeder was for a hopper slot length of 20 meters. During commis-
sioning the feeder would not start under these conditions.
Testwork was undertaken and it was established that the feed-
er could start when the stockpile was only 75 percent full and
cut-off bars were installed to reduce the length of the hopper slot
to 17 meters. The cut off bars were located at the tail end.
The calculation for the original design with a full stockpile re-
quired a motor locked rotor torque of pu = 2.52 > 2.3 for the in-
stalled motor.
Kimberlite Bin Feeder: During commissioning this feeder did
not experience starting problems under a full bin.
7 Conclusions
The methodology for feeder loads is simplified when using the
initial surcharge factor qi according to A [1]. Although the
factor qi can be high, it alone does not indicate that belt feeders
are impractical.
In addition the selected drive must be carefully considered
and the increase in belt sag and belt/idler load must be taken
into account.
It is not generally recommended that an increase in motor size
be installed to overcome starting problems without checking
belt selection, drive pulley traction limits and pulleys are not
overloaded.
Increasing pretension in the belt to reduce belt sag under ini-
tial conditions may assist to start a belt feeder. This maybe all
that is required for a small feeder where component selection
has been oversized to rationalize spares inventories.  shiploading.
References
[1] ML, A.G. and A, P.C.: A simplified approach for
the evaluation of feeder loads for mass flow bins. powder
and bulk solids technology Vol. 3 (1979) No. 3.
[2] R, A.W., O, M. and M, K.S.: Feeder
loads and power requirements in the controlled flow of bulk
bulk solids handling · Vol. 29 · 2009 · No. 8
Hoppers & Feeders
solids from mass flow bins. Trans I.E. Aust. Mech. Engineer-
ing Vol. ME9 (1984) No. 1.
[3] R, A.W. and M, K.S.: Wall pressure feeder
load interactions in mass flow hopper/feeder combinations
Part 1. bulk solids handling Vol. 6 (1986) No. 4, pp. .
[4] R, A.W. and M, K.S.: Wall pressure feeder
load interactions in mass flow hopper/feeder combinations
Part 1. bulk solids handling Vol. 6 (1986) No. 5, pp. .
[5] R, A.W. and M, K.S.: Interactive roles of
hopper/feeder systems as an essential criteria for feeder de-
sign. 2nd Int. Conf. on Bulk Materials Storage Handling and
Transportation, Wollongong, Aust 1988.
[6] R, A.R., B, M.S., B, R.J., and H, C.P.: Start
up and running loads exerted by bulk solids materials on
extractive belt feeders. 6 th. Int. Conf. for Conveying and
Handling of Particulate Solids, Brisbane Convention Cen-
tre, Australia August 2009.
[7] J, A.W.: Storage and flow of bulk solids. Bulletin 123,
University of Utah, Utah 1964.
[8] A, P.C., ML, A.G. and R, A.W.: Bulk solids:
storage, flow and handling. 2nd edition, TUNRA, Newcastle
1982.
[9] B, W.: Industrisiloer. Ingeniorforlaget A/S, 1974, (in
Norwegian).
[10] CEMA: Belt conveyors for bulk materials. 2nd edition, CBI
Publishing, New York 1979.
[11] DIN 22101: Belt conveyors for bulk materials. German
Standards Organisation, 1982.
[12] Maton, A.E.: The effects of idler alignment and belt proper-
ties on conveyor belt power consumption. bulk solids han-
dling Vol. 11. (1991) No. 4, pp. .
About the Author
A.E. Maton
Mr. Bert Maton has been in the engi-
neering industry for 50 years of which
40 years has been in engineering
services to the mining and minerals
processing industry in Western Aus-
tralia. Mr. Maton graduated during 1974 in Mechanical
Engineering at the Western Australian Institute of Tech-
nology. Services have been provided in project and de-
sign engineering for a number of major developments
and operating facilities in the iron ore, nickel, bauxite,
coal and gold. In recent years Mr. Maton has specialised
in mining facilities from the ROM receival, crushing,
screening, belt conveying, unit train loading and un-
loading, shipping terminal stockyards reclaiming and
Contact:
Maton Engineering Pty. Ltd.
Mr. Albert E. Maton
201 Reservoir Road; Orange Grove WA 6106, Australia
Tel.: ++61 (0) 8 9452 3486
Fax: ++61 (0) 8 9452 3496
E-Mail: maton.eng@bigpond.com
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