Motorized Pulleys within UK Coal at Kellingley Colliery
As part of their on-going drive for better efficiency, UK Coal are constantly looking for answers to long term conveyor problems. One such problem was their old main shale/spoil belt at Kellingley Colliery that had a centre placed loop drive on the return strand.
Each year an increasing amount of money is being budgeted for maintenance on all conveyors in UK Coal and this particular conveyor had an annual provision of £30k.
The regional engineer, and the mine’s surface engineer decided that this conveyor was a good example to investigate and prove ways of giving better reliability and reducing maintenance costs.
There were many factors that gave cause for concern with this particular application and the history of work carried out showed how the costs were concentrated mainly around the drive area in the replacement of exposed gearboxes, motors and bearings, and the labour involved to do it. The obvious cost of parts is transparent, but the extra labour over and above the normal maintenance regime and the downtime costs caused by failures was very substantial.
UK Coal looked toward Rulmeca and their range of Motorized Pulleys to provide some assistance and a possible solution to reducing these costs.
The conveyor was surveyed and calculations done bearing in mind that there were plans to extend the conveyor to 295 metres long in the near future. Rulmeca recommended that a 75kw, 800mm diameter unit with split partial lagging was suitable and so two were supplied in 2003, with one acting as an on-site spare due to the critical constant running. They were supplied in normal UK Coal 550 volt format and were run through an inverter which would slow or speed the conveyor to match tonnes-per-hour loading variations and save electricity costs.
To fit an external drive unit on the end of this conveyor with a long boom would have resulted in widening and much strengthening of the structure to cover the extra weight, however, this was not necessary with the motorized pulley. The ease of fitment was realized as the whole conversion took only a morning to complete.
No physical motor maintenance has so far been required and incredibly, UK Coal has calculated that electricity savings of £6000 per annum with this new efficient set-up will be achieved.
There are further additional benefits with this new configuration, in that the lack of a tortuous route around the old loop drive should assist in much longer belt life. There is also a huge noise reduction as the motor is enclosed within the pulley shell, and as the drive is sealed to IP67 there will be no future slurry ingress caused through spillage.
UK Coal has used this application as an example for other conveyor drive changes within the group, and as an opportunity to look to standardise certain drive sizes within each colliery. This will result in further savings by the minimising of mechanical stock and the reduction costly down-time.
RULMECA: Motorized Pulleys
Motorized Pulleys within UK Coal at Kellingley Colliery
As part of their on-going drive for better efficiency, UK Coal are constantly looking for answers to long term conveyor problems. One such problem was their old main shale/spoil belt at Kellingley Colliery that had a centre placed loop drive on the return strand.
Each year an increasing amount of money is being budgeted for maintenance on all conveyors in UK Coal and this particular conveyor had an annual provision of £30k.
The regional engineer, and the mine’s surface engineer decided that this conveyor was a good example to investigate and prove ways of giving better reliability and reducing maintenance costs.
There were many factors that gave cause for concern with this particular application and the history of work carried out showed how the costs were concentrated mainly around the drive area in the replacement of exposed gearboxes, motors and bearings, and the labour involved to do it. The obvious cost of parts is transparent, but the extra labour over and above the normal maintenance regime and the downtime costs caused by failures was very substantial.
UK Coal looked toward Rulmeca and their range of Motorized Pulleys to provide some assistance and a possible solution to reducing these costs.
The conveyor was surveyed and calculations done bearing in mind that there were plans to extend the conveyor to 295 metres long in the near future. Rulmeca recommended that a 75kw, 800mm diameter unit with split partial lagging was suitable and so two were supplied in 2003, with one acting as an on-site spare due to the critical constant running. They were supplied in normal UK Coal 550 volt format and were run through an inverter which would slow or speed the conveyor to match tonnes-per-hour loading variations and save electricity costs.
To fit an external drive unit on the end of this conveyor with a long boom would have resulted in widening and much strengthening of the structure to cover the extra weight, however, this was not necessary with the motorized pulley. The ease of fitment was realized as the whole conversion took only a morning to complete.
No physical motor maintenance has so far been required and incredibly, UK Coal has calculated that electricity savings of £6000 per annum with this new efficient set-up will be achieved.
There are further additional benefits with this new configuration, in that the lack of a tortuous route around the old loop drive should assist in much longer belt life. There is also a huge noise reduction as the motor is enclosed within the pulley shell, and as the drive is sealed to IP67 there will be no future slurry ingress caused through spillage.
UK Coal has used this application as an example for other conveyor drive changes within the group, and as an opportunity to look to standardise certain drive sizes within each colliery. This will result in further savings by the minimising of mechanical stock and the reduction costly down-time.
For more information, please visit:
href="https://edir.bulk-online.com/profile/1563-rulmeca-group.htm" target="blank">https://edir.bulk-online.com/profile...meca-group.htm
Attachments
rulmeca_news_2.12.04 (JPG)
■