1.

Introduction
A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. A belt conveyor system
consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with an endless loop of
carrying medium—the conveyor belt—that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are
powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward.
The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley is called the idler
pulley. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors; Those in general material
handling such as those moving boxes along inside a factory and bulk material handling such as
those used to transport large volumes of resources and agricultural materials, such
as grain, salt, coal, ore, sand, overburden and more.
Belt conveyors are by far the most common material handling conveyor in use today. They are
usually the least expensive powered conveyor and are capable of handling a wide array of
materials. Depending on the type chosen, belt conveyors can carry everything from loose gravel
and coal to disposable cameras to flimsy bags of clothing to rigid cardboard boxes full of
product.
Typically, belt conveyors are used for carrying materials long distances with a single motor.
Belt conveyors can range from a single unit only several inches long up to combined units that
cover hundreds of feet.
Belt conveyors typically consist of a series of sections that make up an entire conveyor. Shorter
units can be single self-contained conveyors. All belt conveyors consist of several sections:
 Intermediate beds
 Drive
 Take-up
 End pulleys (end brackets)
 Nose-over (RBO; optional)
 Power feeders (optional)
A belt conveyor system consists essentially of an endless belt of resilient material connected
between two flat pulleys and moved by rotating one of the pulleys by the electric motor.
Normally material is fed on the belt near the other end pulley. The moving belt carrying the
material towards the driver pulley is likely to sag between the two end pulleys due to its self-
weight and pay load. That is why the belt is supported both on the carrying side and tile return
side by a number of rollers, called the idlers. As the belt is always under tension, it is prone to
elongation resulting in slackness over the pulleys and loss of tension and power. That is why
some kind of device for tensioning the belt is incorporated in the system. This tensioning device
is known as take-up arrangement. The system is inherently very simple.

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 2. Design consideration
Design considerations for the belt conveyor are
 Direction of load travel.
 Length of load travel.
 Properties and characteristics of the material being handled.
 The rate of flow of material.
 Kind of the production process.
 Method of loading and unloading.
 Existing layout and conditions of the work space.
 Initial and operational costs.
 Height to which the load is to be carries.
 Working and climatic conditions.
 The capacity of conveying.
 In a conveying system possibility of use of gravity.
 The capacity of handling/conveying equipment should match with the capacity of
processing unit or units.
 Spillage of conveyed products should be avoided.
 Pollution of the environment due to noise or dust by the conveying system should also
be avoided.
Design parameters are
 Belt Dimension, Capacity and Speed
 Roller Diameter
 Belt Power and Tensions
 Idler Spacing
 Pulley Diameter
 Motor
 Shaft Design
 Control

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Figure 1: Design of Belt Conveyor (Right Side View)

Figure 2: Design of Belt Conveyor (Left Side View)

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 Figure 3: Design of Belt Conveyor (Front View)

3. Material selection

4. Costing

5. Advantage

 Noiseless operation.
 Large length of conveying path
 Lower power consumption.
 Long life.
 Adaptability to different types of goods.
 Ability to carry almost any bulk material
 High reliability of operation.
 Can transport material in any direction.
 It can easily convey the large volume of materials in no time.
 Utilized in food processing industries, airports, and various transporting industries.
 It is cost efficient and has given a relief to the labor efforts.
 Increases the level of productivity rapidly.

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  It can transport the materials both vertically as well as horizontally.
 It also helps to stack the transported materials at the end of the production line.
 It saves the product from getting damaged and also prevent injuries.
 It is an ingenious way to increase the process of production effectively.
 It consumes less power and is durable in nature.
 It can transport the materials in all the directions and proves to be long lasting.

6. Limitation

 Accumulation difficult.
 Complicated marshalling
 The loss of light weight bulk material carried away as dust or spilled from the belt along
its path is another objectionable features.
 Continuous or periodic monitoring of belt is necessary
 Heat affects the material of belt.
 Cannot automatically take the material, in addition to a few belt conveyors can
automatically retrieve material from the stack, most other equipment must be used for
reclaiming.

7. Applications
Within the factory shed belt conveyors are also employed to carry articles of lightweight in
line-production from one operation to another. Belt conveyors are used to mechanize material
handling operations in foundries to distribute molding sand, mold-cores and cast articles. Belt
conveyors are used for carrying coal, ores and minerals in power plants, mining industries, and
metallurgical process plants.
Some typical application areas of belt conveyors are -
 It is used in foundry shop.
 Used for supplying coal.
 Transferring building materials, fossil minerals, grains store.
 Used in wheel excavators
 Ice-cream plant.
 Power plants.
 Bakeries.
 Confectionery.
 Feed and flour mills.
 Laundries.
 Textile.
 Ceramic.
 Chemical plant.
 Ship yards.
 Post office.

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  Supply depots.
 Pharmaceuticals
 Food producing industries
 Packaging industries
 Categorizing and gathering the materials

8. Conclusion
Belt conveyors are an economical means of conveying product from one point to another.
When the simplest form of transportation will do the job, belt conveyors fill the need. Belt
conveyors are not typically used for accumulation because, by design, product is not supposed
to slip on them.

Reference
Apple, James M. (1976) Material Handling Systems Design. John Wiley & Sons.
Belt Conveyors - Major Uses and Applications (2017). Retrieved from http://www.beltconve
yors.in/blog/belt-conveyors-major-uses-applications/
Belt Conveyors. Retrieved from https://machinerychina.org/faq/belt-conveyors.html
Bhoyar, R. K. and C. C. Handa (2013) Design Consideration for Radial Adjustable Belt
Conveyor System. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research. P.
342-343.
McGuire, Patrick M. (2010) Conveyors - Application, Selection, and Integration. CRC Press
2010
Spivakovsky, A and V. Dyachkov (2010) Conveyors and Related Equipment.