Belt Failure Research Articles

Improving the effectiveness of the DiagBelt+ diagnostic system - analysis of the impact of measurement parameters on the quality of signals

Faults in steel cords in the core are not visible during routine visual inspections. They can be identified using magnetic diagnostic systems. The article presents an analysis of the impact of the sensitivity threshold of the DiagBelt+ system, the diameter of cords in the core, and the belt speed on the quality of signals representing known damage: cutting of cords, their absence, and a reduction in the cross-section of the cord. The study focused on defects to cords across the belt, as they can weaken the belt's strength and lead to a complete belt failure. The proposed results and analyses contribute to the improvement of the methodology for magnetic examination of the core's condition and the developed diagnostic system DiagBelt+. Consequently, this enhances the reliability and safety of belt conveyors in various industries, including in brown coal mines, where it has been implemented (PGE GiEK SA KWB O/Bełchatów), as well as in coal, limestone, and copper ore mines, where it is used to assess the condition of belts with steel cords.

Study of Prevalence, Clinical Pattern and Management of Maxillo-Facial Fractures in a Tertiary Care Centre

Introduction: Maxillofacial injuries are one of the most common injuries prevailing in society because of the strong reliance on road transportation. Road traffic accidents being the most common cause, affecting more than 20 million people worldwide. Multiple modality treatment is often required for the management of maxillofacial fractures, including clinical examination, radio-diagnosis and surgical intervention. 3-D CT face has helped in the reconstruction and reformation of fractures with some limitations to the same. Surgical management still holds a good approach towards the definitive management of maxillofacial fractures. Material and methods: Prospective observational study from 1st February 2021 to 31st July 2022. The parameters used were age, sex, time of incident, etiology, type of vehicle used with preventive measures, type of fractures, and treatment received. All patients underwent proper history taking, clinical examination, radiographic evaluation, and 3-D CT face reconstruction. Results: About 104 patients of maxillo-facial fractures presented to the emergency room of SRMS-IMS, Bareilly, out of which 63 patients were treated with surgical management Conclusion: The study concluded that RTAs were the major cause of maxillofacial trauma with the mandible being the most common bone fracture. ORIF with mini-plate fixation as treatment. lack of helmet and seat belt use, alcohol abuse, over-speeding and failure to follow traffic rules and regulations were the contributing factors

Prediction of the belt drive contamination status based on vibration analysis and artificial neural network

Belt drive contamination is considered one of the most common failure modes that could be developed in the belts due to harsh operation conditions, high humidity, and sunlight exposure, reducing the belt’s performance. If the belt failure has not been detected early, a sudden shutdown may happen, producing safety and economic consequences. However, most maintenance personnel use their senses of sight, hearing, smell, and touch to identify the cause of the problem while diagnosing a belt drive condition. Hence, this research involves developing an intelligent contamination status detection system based on vibration signal analysis for a pulley-belt rotating system. Time-domain signal analysis was employed to extract some suggestive features such as the root mean square, kurtosis, and skewness from the vibration data. An artificial neural network (ANN) model was built to detect the simulated different operating conditions. The vibration data was gathered with the help of two MEMS accelerometers (ADXL335) interfaced with an NI USB-6009 data acquisition device. A signal capture, analysis, and feature extraction system was developed using Matlab Simulink. The simulated operating conditions include clean, wet, and powder-contaminated belts. The results showed that the designed system could identify the pulley-belt operation conditions with 100% overall accuracy.

Machine Learning Approach to RFID Enabled Health Monitoring of Coal Mine Conveyor Belt

The mining conveyor belt is an imperative component of the mine industry which serves the crucial role of transporting materials. Predicament such as conveyor belt cracks has to be avoided, because any potential cause of conveyor belt failure constitutes risk of fatalities and significant economic implications. Hence, a new crack detection method is developed which can duly alert prior to any inception of failure. The research incorporates an interdigital capacitor (IC) based Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) tag as sensor and Machine Learning (ML) to monitor the formation of cracks. This is done by collecting data from the UHF sensor when it is placed on a conveyor belt. Two states of the conveyor belt are investigated -stationary and a travelling belt moving at speeds between 1-5 m/s. For the case of motion, it is successfully replicated with the help of an electrical treadmill. By using ML integration, the outcomes will be more effective in tracking crack features. The model is tested with different types of inputs, followed by classification based on experimental data. This method results in a very accurate determination of cracks, crack orientation and width. The experimental model is 97.2% accurate in identifying the presence of cracks and 93.9% accurate in detecting their orientation; it can also determine half a millimetre-wide crack width with 97% of accuracy. This detection system is extremely accurate, even when there is movement. The achieved detection rate of 99.4% depicts the effectiveness of the model performance by successfully combating the interferences caused by motion. This research is intended to be a stepping stone towards an efficient remote health monitoring (HM) system suitable for the smart future.

Proactive measures to prevent conveyor belt Failures: Deep Learning-based faster foreign object detection

Deep learning-based faster identification and classification of foreign objects entrapped in coal conveyor belts is the research topic of this paper. The presence of foreign objects poses a serious threat to the service life of the conveyor belt and the safe transport of coal mines. The paper aims to detect foreign objects entrapped in the conveyed material in advance and provide early warning, thereby safeguarding the safe operation of the belt conveyor and preventing tearing accidents from occurring. Firstly, a new and large conveyor belt foreign objects dataset is established for train and test. Then, based on the higher and faster requirements for camera acquisition frequency and real-time algorithm processing that put forward by high-speed belt conveyors, the paper implements a deeply lightweight target detection network based on the Yolov4 by improving its backbone and neck to ensure the detection speed and accuracy. Experiments show that the improved network proposed in this paper has achieved a highest detection accuracy of 93.73% with the fastest detection speed of 70.1 FPS (frames per second) on proposed foreign objects dataset, which is an improvement of 1.72% in accuracy and 211.56% in detection speed compared to the original Yolov4; Furthermore, by exploring the influence of motion blur on the detection results, the necessity of shortening the exposure time and improving the video frame rate is proved. All this work is of great significance to improve the detection speed of foreign objects identification and is helpful to promote the application of it in the field of edge computing equipment, so as to ensure the safe and efficient operation of belt conveyors.

Design and standard utilization of safety devices for the radiation treatment management of heavy patients.

PurposeIncreasing number of heavy cancer patients has created challenges in diagnostic imaging and radiation oncology. Practical weight limits of the equipment can become an obstacle both for imaging and treatment of these patients. Most magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography (CT) tables’ static load capacities are between 450 and 500 pounds, and linear accelerator tables can support similar weights depending on the type of the table and manufacturer. One recurring issue we encountered was failure of the treatment couch's longitudinal drive belt due to heavy patients’ sudden movement. In several cases, snapping of the longitudinal drive belt occurred when the patient's weight was under 300 lbs (below the rated weight limit). Additionally, we observed vertical deflection of the couch when extended/cantilevered with heavy patients. The purpose of this work was to implement immobilization methods and safety devices for radiation treatment management of heavy patients in order to increase patient/provider safety, prevent treatment couch damage, and reduce treatment disruptions.Materials and methodsWe created three safety devices for treatment management of heavy patients. Wooden brace and Scissor jack were used to lock the couch longitudinal axis (while the couch longitudinal drive was floated) during the setup of a heavy patient and absorb the mechanical impulse applied to the couch longitudinal drive belt. Wooden brace was built in house and positioned in between the wall and treatment couch to lock the longitudinal axis. Commercially available 10 in × 10 in scissor jack lift with adjustable height 3 ½ in – 13 in was modified to increase effectiveness and safety. An additional stand was created with adjustable height and rolling rubber wheels to support the couch when extended/cantilevered with heavy patients.ResultsUsing these devices prevented the longitudinal belt from breaking and improved the patient/therapist safety at eight treatment sites within our network. No farther couch belt failures were observed since devices were introduced for clinical use. All three devices can be used and removed without any modifications done to the treatment couch.

Fault Diagnosis of Synchronous Belt of Machine Tool Based on Improved Back Propagation Neural Network

Aiming at the problem that the machine tool synchronous belt failure during the transmission process will affect the machine tool transmission, a machine tool synchronous belt fault diagnosis method based on genetic algorithm (GA) optimized back propagation (BP) neural network is proposed. First, utilize wavelet decomposition to extract the energy characteristics of the synchronization belt fault; construct a BP neural network, and use genetic algorithms to optimize the BP neural network; finally, the energy characteristic of the vibration signal of the synchronous belt is used as the input of the neural network, and the fault simulation test is carried out. The results show that the genetic algorithm GA-optimized BP neural network has higher accuracy than the traditional BP neural network for fault diagnosis of machine tool synchronous belt.

Rationale for the thickness of the rubber lining of belt conveyor drums

Abstract. In the paper, the current state of development of transport equipment, namely belt conveyors, is presented. Today, belt conveyors are used in all sectors of the economy and transport thousands of tons of products; their length can reach 15 thousand meters. But along with the widespread use of the belt conveyors there is a problem of their reliability. According to researches, the most valuable and responsible parts such as drum and conveyor belt wear out rapidly and significantly increase the cost of transportation. In this paper, it is stated that the main cause of the drum and belt failure is vibration loads and dirt (transported material, moisture, etc.); besides, with taking into account the trend of increase of the conveyor length, vibration loads also increases, hence, accelerating the drum wear. Therefore, many studies and works of scientists are focused on the problem of interaction between conveyor belt and the drum proposing a lot of solutions on how to increase life of the drum and belt, namely the lining of the drums with high-friction material. And only few of them are devoted to the problem of choosing the optimal thickness of the lining.As the world experience on conveyor construction shows, this problem is quite relevant for conveyor transport and, for a number of reasons, is quite difficult for obtaining an analytical solution. The reason is, first of all, the absence of adequate physical and mathematical models and in a variety of operating factors of different physical nature, especially in zone of the belt contact with the drum when it becomes wet or pieces of transported material occurred in it. It is experimentally established that efficiency of conveyor largely depends on the degree and nature of contamination of the drum because contamination of the inner surface of the belt with particles of transported material (coal, sand, ore, etc.) can lead to a significant reduction in the coefficient of adhesion. When drums with rubber lining are used in the belt conveyors, tractive ability of the belt, as well as forces of friction, is also determined by the rate of deformation of the lining layer. It is experimentally established that value of the coefficient of adhesion is directly proportional to the thickness of the rubber lining and inversely proportional to the hardness of the rubber. The rubber lining of the drum allows to: increase traction of the belt; reduce dynamic forces of the “belt-drive drum” system; reduce vibration stress in parts and assemblies of the conveyor (lining dampens both low-frequency and high-frequency oscillations); reduce belt wear; eliminate or at least significantly reduce the impact of contamination due to special corrugations; reduce a possibility of occurrence of self-oscillating process associated with either high belt speeds (about 20 m/s), or with the phenomenon of its slip: one of the main reasons is contamination in the contact zone. Keywords: belt conveyor, drum, rubber lining, dissipation, dissipation coefficient, physical and mechanical properties, aging, adhesion coefficient.

Design of a Test Stand for Lifetime Assessment of Flat Belts in Power Transmission

Flat belts are machine elements used for the power transmission between rotating elements. Compared to chain or gear drives, belt drives express advantages such as low-noise, and shock- and vibration-damping characteristics. Additionally, the simple, low maintenance and cost effective setup as well as high energy efficiency up to 98 % make them an attractive choice. Since they transfer power based on friction, they are subject to wear and consequently are expendable parts. Hence, there is a demand to increase the service lifetime of power transmission flat belts to decrease cost and downtime due to belt failure. This requires a deeper understanding on the fundamental transmission mechanics of flat belts as well as the failure mechanism limiting their lifetime. Experimental investigation is key in achieving both goals. Existing test stands are not able to replicate high performance applications and accelerating the lifetime assessment of flat belts due to limited capabilities in belt force and speed. Therefore, in this work an innovative test stand was designed and build, with a maximum belt tension of 1500 N and a maximum belt speed of 50 m/s, enabling the transfer of 75 kW. The design of the test stand was governed by modularity regarding multiple aspects. First, a variety and range of reproducible adjustable parameters were required. Second, the test stand had to be flexible regarding the emulation of possible drive configurations. Lastly, auxiliary instrumentation had to be accommodated by the test stand and its data acquisition system. The solution concepts for specific components were evaluated using morphological analysis.

Analysis of Transient Belt Stretch for Horizontal and Inclined Belt Conveyor System

Belt is costliest part of belt conveyor system. Sudden rise in belt tension within transient starting condition, results in belt failure and structure damage. It is difficult to measure these stresses by static calculation method and hence their presence might go undetected. Belt elongation is an evident quantity for these stresses. Dynamic belt stretch is formulated in terms of displacement response of conjugative belt units with respect to time. This paper presents analysis of the event and propagation of dynamic belt stretch for straight horizontal and straight inclined belt conveyor system. Dynamic behavior of belt system is investigated for starting condition of fully stacked conveyor belt. Belt conveyor system is considered as series of vibrating mass and its unit is assumed to be a viscoelastic segment. Equation of motion of belt unit is developed by Lagrange’s approach. Observed transient parameters are more vibrant in inclined belt than the horizontal belt system. Maximum value of dynamic belt stretch for horizontal belt systems founds 1.13% of total belt length and for inclined belt conveyor system, it is 1.16% of belt length. Both values are within range of standard value specified for fabric belt system.

Innovations in Monitoring Conveyor Belts with Implemented RFID Technology

Belt conveyors are used as efficient conveyance systems for the continuous transportation of materials. However, they are also used for a wide range of applications in the transport of ores and non-metallic materials. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system represents a key technology in many industries due to its ability of automatic data processing. The purpose of the present article is to discuss the implementation of RFID tags into fabric conveyor belts as carriers of the information on conveyor belts (ozone-induced ageing or accelerated thermal ageing, damage to cover layers and the carcass, and ignition). During the monitoring, it is important to record conveyor belt failures and damage causes, as well as other problems arising during the use of belt conveyors. The article presents the results of the experimental research on RFID tags and the analysis of their behaviour in accelerated thermal ageing. This facilitates simulating the conditions of hot vulcanisation of conveyor belts, especially when splicing (as well as producing) them, and of ozone-induced ageing of conveyor belts. The output of the article is the verification of the possibility to implement the RFID technology in the transport of mineral materials by belt conveyance systems in real operations.

Injury Pattern as an Indication of Seat Belt Failure in Ejected Vehicle Occupants

Prior authors have suggested that when occupant ejection occurs in association with a seat belt failure, entanglement of the outboard upper extremity (OUE) with the retracting shoulder belt will invariably occur, leaving injury pattern evidence of belt use. In the present investigation, the authors assessed this theory using data accessed from the NASS-CDS for ejected front seat occupants of passenger vehicles. Logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between seat belt failure status and injuries. Injury types associated with seat belt failure were significant OUE and head injuries (OR=3.87, [95% CI 1.2, 13.0] and 3.1, [95% CI 1.0, 9.7], respectively). The two injury types were found to be a predictor of seat belt use and subsequent failure only if combined with a high (≥0.8) precrash probability of belt use. The injury pattern associated with a seat belt failure-related ejection has limited use in the forensic investigation of crash-related ejections.

Singularity Detection of Magnetic Memory Signal of Steel-Cord Conveyor Belt

Metal magnetic memory technology was an important method for detecting the steel-cord conveyor belt early fault, characteristics of magnetic memory signal extraction is critical for judging of the conveyor belt failure. Generally using of magnetic memory signal maximum gradient value can quickly judge the stress concentration zone, but the magnetic memory signal is susceptible to effected by environmental and noise; In view of the weak and non-stationary characteristics of magnetic memory signal, this paper has proposed the singularity detection method based on wavelet transform modulus maximum for metal magnetic memory signal, the method could exactly judged the stress concentration zone of joints and located the fault points of the steel-cord belt, the characteristic gradient of magnetic memory signal and the Lipschitz exponent were extracted. The result of simulation indicated the technology was effectively for judging the stress concentration zone and fault point. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i9.2866

A study on the fatigue life prediction of tire belt-layers using probabilistic method

Tire belt separation failure is occurred by internal cracks generated in #1 and #2 belt layers and by its growth. And belt failure seriously affects tire endurance. Therefore, to improve the tire endurance, it is necessary to analyze tire crack growth behavior and predict fatigue life. Generally, the prediction of tire endurance is performed by the experimental method using tire test machine. But it takes much cost and time to perform experiment. In this paper, to predict tire fatigue life, we applied deterministic fracture mechanics approach, based on finite element analysis. Also, probabilistic analysis method based on statistics using Monte Carlo simulation is presented. Above mentioned two methods include a global-local finite element analysis to provide the detail necessary to model explicitly an internal crack and calculate the J-integral for tire life prediction.

A Novel Failure Diagnosis System Design for Automotive Timing Belts

In this study, a novel failure diagnostic system for timing belts was developed in order to prevent a catastrophic belt failure. These failures may occur before running out the nominal belt life and lead to an extensive engine damage, thereby resulting costly repairs. Timing belt failures are generally resulted from three reasons, that is, lack of a tooth, fiber separation on belt sides, and teeth splitting. Three optical sensors with laser beam whose diameter is 0.6 mm was located on suitable positions and it is used to produce error signal resulted from disturbance of laser beam flows due to failure. The error signal is processed by the processor, which is independent from the electronic control unit (ECU) to alert the driver or ECU, directly. Experimental apparatus which consists of two camshaft pulleys and an idler pulley with belt tensioner has been set up to simulate real engine conditions. Experimental results show that the optical monitoring technique is reliable to determine timing belt failure types simultaneously in the range of 500–7000 rpm engine speed and it is also easier, low cost and more applicable than other methods such as vibration monitoring.

307 撚りコードの曲げ強度 : 撚り構成の影響(OS12-2 ベルト・チェーンII)

Fatigue failure mechanism in synchronous belts with steel cord was investigated. The belt failure was initiated near the tooth root, where the steel cords were broken. The steel cord was made for twisting steel wires. There are many kinds for the wire constitution. The bending stress of each wire is necessary to examine the bending strength of the twist cord, that wire constitution is different. The bending stress of the wire is found from a change of the curvature when a wire was bent. In this study, the geometrical calculating method of the wire curvature is proposed. In addition, the example of calculating the bending stress is shown by proposed method.

5112 歯付きベルト用スチールコードの疲労破損 : 素線間拘束の影響(S63-1 ベルト(1),S63 伝動装置の基礎と応用)

Fatigue failure mechanism in synchronous belts with steel cord was investigated. The belt failure was initiated near the tooth root, where the steel cords were broken. The steel cord was made for twisting nineteen steel wires. It consisted of one core wire, six inner layer wires and nine outer layer wires. The bending fatigue tests of the steel cord were carried out and discussed the fatigue failure mechanism. The bending fatigue was firstly initiated for the outer wires. However, the bending stress was highest in the center core wire according to our geometrical analysis. Therefore, the interaction between the wires may increase the axial stress and the total stress of the bending and the axial stresses may fatigue the outer wire. On the other hand, the FEM results showed that the maximum stress occurs in the outer layer wire by the restriction between wires.

Failure of plastic press release buttons in automobile seat belts

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Suzuki, Subaru, Isuzu and Daihatsu and other automobile manufacturers modified their restraint system seat belt buckle assemblies in several models of vehicles. These automobile manufacturers incorporated plastic seat belt buckle assemblies manufactured by Takata Corporation as the 52 and A7 model series [National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), 1997, p. 1]. These seat belt models were introduced as early as 1986 and soon it was reported that numerous complaints of the malfunctions of the seat belt locking and release mechanisms had occurred. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued voluntary Recall No. 95V-103.001 on May 24, 1995, concerning 1986–1991 Honda Accords with model 52 and A7 series Takata seat belt buckles after there were numerous reported failures of these buckle assemblies. This issue has been the subject of numerous engineering investigations and failure analysis and, to date, the root cause of the seat belt failures has been attributed to the selection of an inappropriate material of construction for the seat belt press release button (acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene plastic or “ABS”); however, the evidence presented has been inconclusive and had been debated in the literature. This paper will present failure analysis of the seat belt buckle assembly, including polymer materials property review, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy and Finite Element Analysis modeling. Prior failure analysis has concluded that the root cause of the failures was that the ABS press release buttons were fracturing due to a loss of material strength as a result of photolytic degradation (exposure to sunlight) [Eng. Fail. Anal. 1999 6 (l) 13]; however, this paper presents failure analysis that not only casts doubt on this root cause of failure but also provides evidence that for an alternative root cause of the failures, specifically that the design of the ABS press release buttons without the inclusion of rib reinforcement provided inadequate strength for the button to withstand the stress exerted from the insertion of the latch plate.

2501 歯付ベルト用スチールコードの疲労破損機構

Fatigue failure mechanism in synchronous belts with steel cord was investigated. The belt failure was initiated near the tooth root, where the steel cords were broken. The steel cord was made for twisting nineteen steel wires. It consisted of one core wire, six inner layer wires and nine outer layer wires. The bending fatigue tests of the steel cord were carried out and discussed the fatigue failure mechanism. The bending fatigue was firstly initiated for the outer wires. However, the bending stress was highest in the center core wire according to our geometrical analysis. Therefore, the interaction between the wires may increase the axial stress and the total stress of the bending and the axial stresses may fatigue the outer wire. On the other hand, the FEM results showed that the maximum stress occurs in the outer layer wire by the restriction between wires.

スチールコードが挿入された歯付ベルトの疲労破損

Fatigue failure mechanism in synchronous belts with steel cord was investigated. The steel cord was made of twisting nineteen steel wires. The construction of the cord is described as 1×19, which consists of one core wire, six inner layer wires and twelve outer layer wires. The belt failure was initiated near the tooth root, where the steel cords were fatigued. The curvature of the belt was measured and confirmed that the belt was bent largely at the failure initiation site. Namely, the belt was damaged by the bending fatigue. Then, the bending fatigue tests of the steel cord were carried out to examine the fatigue failure mechanism. The fatigue failure was firstly initiated in the outer layer wires. However, the bending stress was lowest in the outer layer wires and is highest in the core wire, according to a simple geometrical analysis. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the initiation caused by another type of stresses based on the contact between the wires.