Dear Sir

It is good idea of having drives at both ends. you can use fliud copling in normal case.

For fine speed syncronisation you can use VFD drive with regid coupling for both conveyors . you can provide techometer on back side on both motor shafts.Plc system will syncronise both moter speeds based on feed back received from each motor. With VFD you can also share the load of rach motor by adjusting the torque

AR SINGH ■

Hello there Richard..

The best thing to do is always use the simplest solution.

Since the conveyor is very short, and fed in the middle, the ideal arrangement is as follows:

- Put a reversible drive at one end only with normal fluid coupling

- Have fixed terminal pulleys to make the discharge chutes easy

- Use a fabric belt

- Use garland idlers (unless the conveyor is inclined)

- Put a hand winch take up with sufficient sheaves, anywhere on the return belt (but preferably at a low point)

We have used hand winches with great success on conveyors up to 450m long and motorised winches which we leave in a fixed position on fabric belts up to 1 200m long. So 200m is fine.

Regards

LSL Tekpro ■

A lot to do about a 40-50 kw drive. You don't need an inverter. Maybe a little TV fluid coupling or simple solid state starter which is cheaper. ■

You can crank on all the take-up tension you require for driving it from one end given the belt selection is more dependent on idler support than belt tension. ■

How about motorized drum pulleys, one at each end?

That would be fun and would work fine. ■

Hello Sterling..

As we have tried to explain above you can simply arrange the conveyor with one drive at one end only, and a winch take up that, as Larry concures.. you just crank up.

Lets keep it simple and use proven arrangements.

All too often I see the so-called Swedish principle creaping in, i.e. ":Why make it easy, when we can make it complicated?"

Regards

LSL Tekpro ■

Maybe I spoke in haste.

Is your conveyor a shuttle or fixed position?

The use of one drive does produce an effect that must be considered during design.

A. When the drive is pulling the load from the central loading point to the head drive discharge, the return strand is loaded with a low tensioned belt up to the loading point.

B. When the drive is pulling the load from the central loading point to the tail station, opposite the drive, then the belt is high tension from the tail/discharge and along the return strand to the head/drive. This will require added power and will produce a potential for drive slip as well as added belt sag. These conditions must be desgned for.

If the conveyor is a shuttle then there are further complications.

All things considered, having both ends driven has advantages. Note: with this configuration you will always have one motor pulling belt out of and one pushing belt into the takeup.

Are you considering reversing the belt direction by changing motor polarity?

Be carefull of the drive/reducer reaction direction.

If the system has a fixed takeup there are added details.

If you choose to drive from both ends, you will always be driving through the takeup from one end.

You might consider always starting the belt carryside pulling drive first by about 1 second. ■