CONVEYORS
have come from its Australian operations . The rollers and idlers have been supplied by Syntron Material Handling , which is headquartered in Tupelo , Mississippi , but the components have been shipped from its Chinese factory in Changshu and as stated the steel cord belt is all from ContiTech from its Chinese operation , Shandong ContiTech Engineered Product Co Ltd in Yanzhou , Shandong Province .
The Dune Express is not only one of the longest conveyor belts ever to be built in mining , it will also be one of the smartest . Warner told IM : “ Before assembling its Link-Belt rollers and idlers in Changshu , Syntron incorporates Vayeron ’ s Smart-Idler sensors into them , which are made in Australia . The finished rollers and idlers are then shipped to us .”
Smart-Idler , supplied by Vayeron , based in Mackay , Queensland , is an intelligent conveyor monitoring system that embeds electronic sensors within the roller . It predicts roller failures , allowing rollers to be replaced during scheduled maintenance periods rather than during critical production . Vayeron is supplying in the region of 70,000 of them for Dune Express .
And this is not the only smart element . “ We ’ ve taken the best of the technology that has been installed on many conveyors around the world and brought it all together for this project , particularly in relation to maintenance . The Smart-Idler is looking at vibration of bulk bearings , plus their temperature as well as the acoustics of the roller . Generally speaking it is designed to send us a notification two to three months before the roller will actually fail . We will have that go into our maintenance planning system and have a crew go change these rollers well prior to them collapsing and causing any downtime or damage on the conveyor .” In addition , Warner said that the motors , gearboxes and larger pulleys – everything has remote monitoring on it that will report back in real time to Atlas ’ s teams . The lubrication system is also automated which will indicate if more greases need adding into the system . “ This all helps us to maintain a 42 mile conveyor without having to have people out in the field on a regular basis .”
For the belt itself , ContiTech is providing its CONTI MultiProtect system to monitor belt condition . This is a is a permanent magnetic system that detects belt rips by monitoring embedded rip inserts that are magnetised . When using the MultiProtect flat sensor , systems can monitor for steel cord damage and splice integrity in addition to rip monitoring . “ These sit on the top and bottom of the belt and there are several banks of these on each belt . They are supported by permanent magnets and even if one strand of steel cord in the ST belt fails it is designed to pick this up .”
Finally , the full length of the conveyor system is monitored by cameras . “ We can see every foot of the conveyor at all times . Plus we have extra cameras at transfer stations and gates – any places where we need more security as well .”
Warner concluded by saying that none of this is new to the conveyor world but bringing it all together into one conveyor system is . McEver added : “ One of the other big differences between our conveyor and other conveyors is that the sand is coming off the conveyor and going straight to the end user – the sand will go onto a truck and go straight to the well site and being used in the well likely within hours . So it is very important for us to not have any disruptions or downtime . So a lot of these high tech maintenance measures were put in place to ensure high uptime .”
A unique Voith Turbo drive system
It was announced in August 2023 that Atlas Energy Solutions selected Voith Turbo to supply a total of 21 TurboBelt 800 TPXL fill control fluid coupling drives ( including spares ) to power the 42 miles of conveyor belt . ELIN Motoren , a Voith company , is also providing 21 customised low noise electric motors for the project , including spares .
The multimillion-dollar project required significant technical work by Voith , ultimately developing seven different drive package designs for the install . Most significantly , the Voith drives needed to be designed to provide a specified acceleration time of 10 minutes for the conveyors . This extended start-up time was required to maintain belt tensions , especially along the lengthy horizontal curves for two of the system ’ s four belts . This start-up time is significantly longer than most large conveyors , which typically require 60 to 120 seconds .
CDI builds on unique experience
IM reached out to Conveyor Dynamics , Inc ( CDI ) for some more insight into its role and experience in the project development - the company is well known globally for its overland conveyor design and modelling capabilities , and for its BeltStat and BeltFlex conveyor design software .
Andrew Jennings , CDI President , commented : “ High product temperature and wide ambient temperature range were major considerations in the belt rubber compound selection . CDI has been developing algorithms and test procedures since the 1990s that allows us to determine the optimum rubber compound that minimises conveyor power consumption . We reviewed numerous potential compounds from the suppliers and finally selected one of the compounds offered by Conti . We also tested idler rolls from several manufacturers in our laboratory and selected the most appropriate for the climate
conditions . The demand power of this conveyor will be 40 % less than it would have been with a conventional rubber compound and idler rollers . This could translate into huge CAPEX and OPEX savings .”
Jennings added that CDI has an impressive track record and as such for Dune Express it was able to build on its previous experience designing the two longest single flight conveyors in the world with which Dune Express shares many similar features including low rolling resistance rubber compounds and very wide idler spacing . These are the 12.7 mile Curragh North mine conveyor CV1103 which was a joint venture design partnership between Laing O ‘ Rourke , Australia and CDI ; and the 16-mile Impumelelo conveyor near Secunda , South Africa for Sasol , for which CDI was engaged by ELB Group , the principal contractor .
However , in relation to the Dune Express , Jennings adds : “ at Dune Express Atlas challenged us to prove high winds would not result in loss of product . We refined our module design using CFD and experimentally validated the CFD on a 32 ft long test section of conveyor . We also invented a device to change idler rolls while the conveyor is running to reduce the downtime associated with idler maintenance . Dune Express will be the first conveyor to include our load cell free belt tension monitoring instrument for tail drive control , plus the already mentioned mobile unloading facility that can offload sand at any location along the conveyor route , which is expected to reduce trucking requirements .”
Syntron ' s well proven Link-Belt makes the grade
IM caught up with Brent Walker , Vice President Sales & Marketing at Syntron Material Handling , LLC , which is owned by Kadant Inc , for more information on the company and its role with the Dune Express project . “ We got involved with this project about four years ago . It was a collective effort - our engineering team worked closely with Conveyor Dynamics and Vayeron and of course with Atlas Energy themselves to make it a success .”
Syntron is a 140 year old company and Walker said that its Link-Belt product line has a very longstanding reputation in mining for the quality , reliability and longevity of its rollers . This is its largest ever overland conveyor roller order , but it is also very strong in the underground market including in the Appalachian coal mines plus the trona mines in Wyoming and potash mines in Saskatchewan .
Impressively , the Vayeron sensors are in every single one of the Link-Belt rollers - there are over 65,000 of them , equating to 22,000 complete idler sets , and in addition to these some spares
50 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2024