Dear Mr. Rosenthal,

You are likely to get detailed information easier from the major suppliers of high ST rated belts directly from the manufacturers or from design companies, such as Conveyor Dynamics. I suggest that you contact companies such as Goodyear and Continental for updated information.

As far as your questions are concerned, do not expect your requirements to be met without risk. There is risk involved with any purchase - even readily available low tension systems with a long history of success. Improvements and ongoing development information should be available from the belt manufacturers.

Regards, ■

From the www.phoenix-ag.com website.

World Record

The stongest Conveyor Belt worldwide

24,000 m (78,740 ft) of a PHOENOCORD St 7800 were supplied to the Los Pelambres mine in Chile in 1999. The effective belt breaking strength is 8,500 N/mm (48,500 piw).

It is not only the strongest conveyor belt worldwide but it also has the longest and strongest splices. Aside from the static splice strength which is approximately equal to the belt breaking strength, the dynamic belt breaking strength as per DIN 22110 is 54% ■

G.P.Rosenthal

This Forum is frequented by material handling experts from all fields and from all parts of the World but unfortunately the Belt Manufacturers representation is not a strong point.

If you don’t want to wait another 3 years for your answer, I’d do as Mr Miller suggests and contact the Major Belt manufacturers direct.

Some of these would be Goodyear, Phoenix, Bando, Bridgestone, Yokohama , ContiTech and Fenner.

All are contactable online.

Good luck with your search and please post your results. ■

Dear Sr Rosenthal,

Yes, the ST-10000 N/mm belt will be built to test its splice efficacy within 3 months.

I believe you are aware of CDI's involvement with the ST-7800 belt and splice at Los Pelambres and the testing of the same.

CDI is assisting today in the design of a ST-10000 N/mm belt and its multi-step splice with new unpublished improvements. This is for one belt manufacturer. I am not at liberty to discuss this in a public forum and would require the release or collaboration of the manufacturer to provide details.

You may be aware that CDI has also designed and tested steel cord belts to ST-8900, in 1997, with a dynamic splice efficiency > 50% as per the CDI test criteria in anticipation of today’s needs. This belt design was developed for a different manufacturer. The testing is more rigorous than the Hanover test procedures. The test more closely mimics the real world where the splice is relaxed across the drive pulley in less than 0.5 seconds not the Hanover relaxation cycle of 8 seconds. The shorter strain relaxation cycle seriously penalizes rubber fatigue performance.

We have also successfully designed and tested ST-8000, ST-7000 and St-5100 belts. The ST-5100 N/mm belt and spice was designed for Escondido. This was the first two-step with this high ST rating. It achieved a >60% dynamic efficiency.

I stated to you during an earlier forum dialog that there are many critical design details required to obtain the best belt and splice design. You must also understand the principles of the test machines to control your risk.

Splice Dynamic Test Machines have differing functionalities. Hanover's machine was designed in the 1970's. The Goodyear machine was designed and commissioned by CDI in 1996 and has many special instruments to provide greater insite into splice failure mechanisms. It is about twice as strong, has 50% greater pulley centers, greater machine width to test multi-step splice patterns together with end conditions, has 50% large pulleys to control cord bending fatigue, has pulley axis position control that measures in sub millimeters, has a hydraulic circuit with significantly greater control and has an elaborate data acquisition system with computer displayed real time tracking of all critical splice monitoring attributes.

The Goodyear machine is the world's only ST-10000 N/mm Two Pulley splice dynamic tester. You should become informed of the differences between machines, test procedures, splice designs, special techniques et al to control your risk.

You should be informed on how, why and where you are at risk in the design of an ST-10000 belt. This should include: design principles, test procedures, product performance and new innovations to mitigate your project risk.

We are always at your disposal. ■