Sustainable Development Oriented Belt Conveyors Quality Standards

Abstract

Belt conveyors (BC) due to their unmatched capacity are extensively used in all industry applications where large volumes of bulk solids need to be transported. The mining industry is among the greatest BC users that set the new standards of required reliability, durability and operational safety. In recent years the sustainable development of the industry with the special focus on its eco-efficiency, primary energy consumption and GNG emission, is of the growing public interest. Relatively low raw material prices force competitiveness in the mining sector. Both issues set the new, higher requirements of BC efficiency as large BC systems are significant consumers of the expensive electric energy. BC are designed and built with regard to relatively conservative standards, lagged behind the already implemented technological development of BC equipment and maintenance methods. This paper deals with the proposal of the novel approach to both defining new standards for BC equipment that incorporates energy labelling, Eco-efficiency Analysis approach and calculating BC resistances to motion and required drive power with object oriented methods. The approach is illustrated by the analysis of idlers energy consumption and their fatigue tests.