Driving Change

The environmental conditions in an underground or above ground mine are harsh for any mechanical mining equipment, especially for belt conveyors, and even more so for conveyor belt drives.

The most common conveyor drive configuration used in the mining belt conveyor is an external motor and gearbox mounted on the side or on the top of the conveyor frame. This externally-mounted drive unit is either driving the head roller by using sprockets and chain, by V-belts, or via the gearbox shaft that is mounted directly to the shaft of the head roller. This external belt drive system is very maintenance intensive; the pillow block bearings supporting the head roller to the frame need to be maintained and kept lubricated. Part of the maintenance includes bearing vibration analysis, which is very important in estimating the remaining service life of the bearings. Downtime is very common for this type of conveyor drive configuration. The dusty and abrasive conditions in which these belt conveyors operate affects the proper cooling of the externally mounted electric motor, and are the cause of premature motor failure.

Another issue associated with the traditional drive configuration that causes downtime is the rubber lagging on the head drive roller. Lagging delamination due to wear, or physical damage to the lagging, can cause downtime and belt damage. Uneven wear of the rubber lagging will also prevent proper belt tracking, requiring more maintenance time to track the belt.

 

This is a preview of an article that was originally published in the March 2025 issue of Global Mining Review.

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Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/26032025/driving-change/