ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group, Siemens AG Process Industries and Drives Division, and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions are concluding a cooperation agreement for the development and marketing of the Chevron MegaPipe tubular belt conveying system, setting a milestone for a reduction in conventional heavy-duty traffic in opencast mining.
High-strength ribbed pipe belts with an outer diameter of up to 900 mm are available as fabric or steel cord belts. They have low-elongation, high-strength carcasses and will enable the efficient conveying of ores and overburden over mine slopes with angles of inclination of 30 to approximately 50 degrees. The well-known advantages of the MegaPipe are retained, namely closed-trough transport of large mass flows up to 9,500 m3/h and lump sizes up to 350 mm directly from the primary crusher.
“Standard trough-shaped conveyor belts with and without ribbing, as well as smooth pipe belts, allow the transport of bulk material with angles of incline of up to a maximum of 30 degrees, depending on the material properties. In the future, the ribbed Chevron MegaPipe conveyor belt system will make it possible to create systems with angles of incline of up to 50 degrees. Steep-angle conveying for unbroken material in a range of between 50 and 90 degrees can be realised with a skip conveyor from ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions and with Flexowell or Pocketlift systems from ContiTech for primary crushed bulk material,” says Dr Franz M. Wolpers, head of the Materials Handling Division at ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, describing the steep-angle conveying opportunities for handling large capacities.
The design features of a Chevron MegaPipe require high-performance drives with a so-called direct drive concept without the usual intermediate gearbox. The integration of these megawatt (MW) drive units on the head pulley of a conveyor system as well as their activation is resolved by Siemens. Initial feasibility studies have demonstrated a safe transmission of up to 8 MW.
In addition to extra low loss conveyor belts and monitoring systems, the Chevron MegaPipe belt is another product from the Conveyor Belt Group, which reduces investment and operating costs and increases the efficiency in mines at the same time. “In recent years, the Conveyor Belt Group has become one of the world’s leading specialists in the continuous steep-angle conveying of all types of bulk material. We have managed to create a product that combines our expertise in the development and manufacture of conveyor belts for steep-angle and vertical conveying with our knowhow of pipe belts and high-tensile steel cord conveyor belts up to ST10.000 to exploit the advantages of all three technologies for our mining customers,” explains Dr Michael Hofmann, Head of Segment at the ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group.