Originally Posted by ravisharath

cost variation of the conveyor with respect to the increased load moving over it.

We are planning to transport coal by conveyor over a distance of 8 km from a port to the power plant site. it is decided to import 3MTPA coal (30% of the actual requirement), which shall invariably move by conveyor. Now, there is quiet a good possibility to import the remaining coal as well. can you please tell me if the cost would increase exponentially. As per the thumb rule of our consultant it is expected to be 100 crores assuming it to be Rs 1.25 Lacs/metre. What would be the cost per metre of conveyor designed to move 10MTPA to feed the plant. (conveyor is yet to be constructed).

Your 1.25 Lac/m (assuming $USD48.4 INR/$1.00 USD and 1 Lac = 100,000 INR seems high. I would believe the job can be done for 1 Lac/m or $USD2066/m handling 10 mpta or about 1600 t/h. Or roughly 62.5 Lac/Ton. However, I would argue the higher the tonnage, the lower the Lac rate per ton. The component cost will reduce on a per ton increase. This works if the conveyor stays in the conventional range. Some examples of why: Assume a fixed speed, and length, then the belt covers are set, and the width is set. As we increase tonnage the width will increase by the square root of the tonnage increase. So you increase the covers and width disproportionately smaller than linear. In addition, the installation cost of terminal equipment will increase less than linearly.

There are too many assumptions that need to be considered to qualify this answer. Is the owner willing to apply modern design methods or adopted antiquainted Indian design standards? How much of the conveyor is elevated or built on piles? I assume the terrain is flat.

We are working on a number of Indian overland conveyor systems where the client does not restrict the technology. In this case the better design selection should be the Total Life Cycle Cost not the Capital Cost. Operating cost can be a fraction of the Indian standards. Modern conveyors designed using Indian manufacturered belting draws significantly more power (~25-50% more) and therefore has a higher strength rating and requires more steel to take the higher reaction force. ■

A second note:

I recently quoted to design a conveyor for a large end user. Althought we could show a multi-million dollar savings, his approach to our design fee was that he could not afford to give the job to us since he could get the work done for far less engineering dollars by some backyard mechanic. So he causes his company to spend millions on outdated design methods, cuts the conveyor into many flights that handicaps the production throughput and causes excessive maintenance and risk to the transport circuit.

The point is: Indian psychy is not willing to accept the premise that performance should be the goal and not price. You get what you pay for. ■

Originally Posted by nordell

Indian psychy is not willing to accept the premise that performance should be the goal and not price. You get what you pay for.

How true, and I too have seen the results ■

Lot more information is needed before this question can be dealt with. 3 million tonnes is about 50 panamax shipments. 10 million tonnes will involve about 150 shiploads. The conveyor capacity will depend on how much you are allowed to store at port stockpiles and for what periods and storage costs. ■