Hi Sanjay,

There is no accurate guidance as it totally depends on the design, installation,materials being conveyed and layout. Coarser larger materials will result in higher maintenance, poor installation can lead to tracking and other issues, poor design of transfers and take-ups can create major maintenance issues and the width, belt speed, length of conveyors are also issues. If you can confidently state your design and installation designs are to a high standard CEMA guidelines may work but my experience is maintenance costs are much higher than expected in most industries

Cheers

Colin Benjamin

Gulf Conveyor Systems Pty Ltd

www.conveyorsystemstechnology.com ■

If CEMA are actually suggesting that the belt annual cost is 5% it forecasts a belt life of over 20 years. Most manufacturers will only advise an ideal life of 10-12 years because of the environmental degradation of the rubber.

Most bid enquiries call for the provision of 2 years spares which is presumably CEMA's standpoint for 2.

As Colin says, the quality of design, construction, specification and maintenance are the important issues. Some belt manufacturers' software calculate the life of their belting but these are generally very hit and miss affairs. The Yokohama Belt Catalogue mentioned an independent formula for belt life prediction back in the 1980's and probably before that. I lost my copy. It only takes a chunk of tramp iron to throw any maintenance forecast out of the window.

Imagine the maintenance fitters have got sick of the metal detectors and kicked them into touch; the bottom cover has been worn down to the anti rip embedment so that has been disabled as well. With a bit of tramp iron the belt can slit and duplicate itself in minutes. So, do you hold a full replacement belt ready in store? That replacement belt will have deteriorated while in store and you won't get your money's worth. Also, some operators run the belt down to the steel chords and then expect the rollers to ignore the abuse.

One strategy is to not complain about too much until the handover period is finished and once that is expired you can run the beast into the ground so that the spares budget becomes realistic very soon. Those charged with predicting maintenance costs are labouring in vain.

"Never count your money when you're sitting at the table.

There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done." ( K Rodgers - The Gambler) ■