If you do a conveyor calculation, no GTU, no product on the belt - that will give you all the frictional resistances required. The return belt portion would be more than the resistance of the reel.

Alternatively you can guess using a coefficient of friction of say 0.03 on the weight of the belt. ■

James..

This new conveyor of yours..

Is it long or short.. inclined or overland.. and what are you actually trying to find out? Are you trying to work out the best belt installation and splicing procedure?

Normally we pull in a new roll with a crane and splice to the next new roll and repeat as far as we can go, then move to a new suitable position and so on.

Sometimes we pull in the belts roll by roll onto the conveyor then splice all the ends together. This is quicker as we can do lots of splices at the same time.

If it is an in-plant conveyor, we pull the belt in from the bottom to the top and then haul it back down again and splice at the bottom.

Horses for courses, as they say.

Do tell all

LSL Tekpro ■

When in doubt talk to your belt Vendor's technical representative - they're at the end of the phone and will tell you the weight of belt involved.

Normal safety factor on winch cable is 4 or 5. But the winch gear inself should give you adequate service at 2. If you want to check talk to licensed riggers at an equipment hire company.

Engineers have to ask questions too when they're in new territory. ■

James..

Incidentaly..our most valuable asset is Nelson Mandela... (and can you believe I had the honour of getting a bit tipsy with him one lazy Sunday afternoon in Johannesburg. He like warm sweet white wine you know)

But I digress

Surely you can lay your hands on a small crane or a tractor to pull the belt in, like myself and other mortals do..

Regards

LSL Tekpro ■

Dear James,

There have been earlier discussions on this point in the forum. If you use the forum search engine and enter "belt threading" you will obtain four references with many comments and dialog within belt conveyor technology. ■