Anıl Üstün
Encoders and Fluid Sensors Product Manager
SICK Turkey
In the mining and mine processing operations of our times, transportation of bulk material must be made efficiently and economically. Conveyer infrastructure is obviously most important part of the handling of bulk material. Irrespective of the type or source of mine involved, perfect conveyor performance must be guaranteed to enhance the value of the mining company. For that reason modern conveyor systems are ideally designed to use the optimum data available in our time.
You may well be working on the detailed design of an investment project or be responsible for the management of conveyor infrastructure running as part of an available system, there will be certain factors that must be kept in mind. Financial expenses (capital and protection of capital), energy consumption, system’s availability and life time of the conveyor belt and pulley are some of these factors. Moreover, environmental responsibility awareness requires that dust emission and system’s sound levels are managed carefully. As sufficient amount of investment is made to the research of electrical, mechanical and infrastructural elements in order to maintain proper conveyor performance, conveyor design is developed considerably in the new systems.
This database is the result of very efficient data collection and information systems used normally for the bulk material conveyors. Traditionally, performance of a conveyor system is monitored by observing mass flow. Although monitoring mass flow was the basic method to check the performance of a conveyor, it does not represent a holistic approach in the management of total system cost. Looking at the “lifetime cost” of a conveyor system, can we find better means to provide optimum investment return and maintenance period?
In the current market, we see a vast variety of system equipments designed with a focus on specific conveyor requirements. Belt connections, belt corners and belt alignments can be monitored on almost real-time basis and monitoring is not used only to reveal the performance failures of the system. At the design phase, performance and reliability targets are determined and design is carefully developed so that system can meet the performance requirements. In order to create a system in line with the relevant project budget, every crucial detail is taken into consideration including position of the material (angle of repose), distance of the pulley in this angle, structural projection, belt material and energy supply. In order to guarantee required performance level with a conveyor system “in line with its specific design”, certain exceptional conditions must be monitored on real-time basis.
SICK Bulkscan LMS511 Laser Volumetric Flow Meter is a compact product that can be easily installed and maintained by your electric technician and it enables monitoring of data on real-time basis as it can made contactless measurement. Data provided by SICK Bulkscan includes belt side control, center of gravity for the material, gravity force, volumetric flow rate and mass flow rate (along with a known mass density input). Scanning of the conveyor and material profile for 50 times per second provides almost momentary data but variable speed systems cannot function properly to provide such data. As it reduces the material collapsing at any part of the conveyor belt, the system can maintain a good level of productivity and is ideal for the critical controls of feeding lines.
SICK Bulkscan can be used in connection with belt weigh-bridges or independently. Continuous monitoring of loading center prevents excessive weartear on the pulley and untimely belt failures and it can be used in the management of load conditions to avoid any measurement errors with typical belt weigh-bridges. As a contactless device, SICK Bulkscan will not be part of the belt support system and can be installed without any structural modification. Since it has IP67 protection class, it can resist to unfavorable environmental conditions. Most of the installation can be completed outside of the conveyor walk line without any impact on the system’s general productivity which provides an ideal solution for the available infrastructure. Variable control interfaces are provided as standard including digital I/O, TCP/IP Ethernet (along with function blocks for Siemens and Rockwell) and analogue interface offered as an accessory. Reading can be made within minutes with SICK Bulkscan without any need for complex software and configuration.
Correct monitoring of conveyor infrastructure performance will provide you with a simple method in system optimization. With increasing efficiency and decrease in the rate of incidents causing failure and productivity losses, highest economic gain can be derived from the system and incidents such as overloading, fluctuation, collapsing, unloading area blockages, load imbalances and belt failure will be mostly avoided. As a device that can be configured to too many applications, SICK Bulkscan LMS511 offers you the desired system control and early investment return throughout the lifetime of the system.
