Glossary of conveyor belt terms

15/09/2014

MONITORING

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CONVEYOR BELT MONITORING

Steel cords as such are susceptible to corrosion. Belts with stainless steel cords were used in some very acidic environments
underground, but were never able to achieve a real breakthrough due to their high price and low specific strength.
In the early days, water often got into a cord when the conveyor belt was damaged, and then spread throughout the cord like in a
drinking straw, unnoticed from the outside. In extreme cases, sometimes, invisible corrosion pockets grew several hundred meters
away from the damage. This was even more likely to occur at the open cord ends in the splice. In addition, the splice ramps were
often torn open by scrapers which made it easier for dirt and water to penetrate the belt, resulting in delamination and rust in the
splice.
Nowadays, corrosion is no longer a problem on top-class steel cord conveyor belts, even with exterior damage, thanks to the use of
high-quality, hot-galvanized cords of a special open design, combined with highly flowable and adhesive special rubber compound
and state-of-the-art production technology.
These high-quality materials and modern processes as well as additional protection provided by cascaded ramps and synthetic
transverse cord reinforcement, present numerous advantages for the splices, making corrosion unlikely here as well.
Nevertheless, there will always be incidents that trigger conveyor belt failures. Unplanned conveyor downtimes are often a
catastrophic and very costly result, that must be avoided.Hence, good belt scanning is highly advisable.

Available systems:
Magnetic resistance
Used for

Working principle

Inspection of steel cord conveyor belts right after The steel cords are inductively
the production or at certain intervals during the magnetized (before that they have to be
operating time.
demagnetized).

Remarks
No permanent monitoring.
Complicated analysis.

Leakage field measurement

Used for

Working principle

Remarks

Detection of abrupt changes of the steel-cord

cross-section.

Leakage field measurement

Can be used for speeds of up to 6

m/s. No belt vibrations allowed.
Complicated analysis.

Working principle

Remarks

Visual inspection
Used for

Belt damages that may have injured the carcass, A well-trained person is watching the belt
detecting protruding steel cords.
at low speed.

Works only at low speed. Carcass

damages without external injuries are
hard to detect.

Transmitter-receiver system
Used for

Working principle

Remarks

Detection of tears and damages of steel-cords.

Site attenuation; decrease of an electric

field by electrically conducting materials
(the steel-cords).

Even small cracks can be detected.

No real-time monitoring.

Used for

Working principle

Remarks

Detection of carcass damage.

X-ray shots.

Excellent resolution, but covers small

areas only because it is a
discontinuous process.

X-Ray

New system (2013):

Detection of cover and carcass damages, splice Permanent X-ray recording of moving belt
deterioration, wear, insufficient cleaning, etc.

Excellent resolution, detection of any

failure, real-time analyses, remote
access.

Opto-electronic Imaging

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Glossary of conveyor belt terms

15/09/2014

Used for

Working principle

Remarks

Belt surface condition

Camera systems

Limited use under dirty conditions.

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