The EXACT center line of the drive unit must have the same EXACT center line of the tail pulley

when the turnbuckles used to secure the tail pulley and head pulley in place.

A surveyor will run a continous nylon twine line along a route and paint the mine floor or ground

to correctly locate the turnbuckel anchor points, sailboats, and continuos center line of the conveyor

belts trough.

This has to happen, this MUST happen whether it is a steel supported or cable supported conveyoy

other wise the conveyor will not run true and the belt will eventually be destroyed as the

conveyor cannot be properly be trained and aligned by the user.

If a cable supported supported conveyor is employed the sail boats used to anchor and create tension

to support the troughing idlers and stands must be perfectly aligned as well.

It changes a little with curved conveyor installations but the measurements MUST still be exact in placement

which is just like maintaining the rail guage on a rail way to prevent derailments of rail wagons. ■

Dear Shri Gaurav,

I presume you are referring to usual belt conveyors. Such conveyor centerline is in single flat vertical plane. All the pulleys (whether head pulley, tail pulley, snub pulley, bend pulley etc.) should be perpendicular to the aforesaid vertical plane. This is to be achieved by appropriate instruments and measurements.

That means ideally all the shafts of pulleys will be parallel and horizontal and perpendicular to the vertical plane of the conveyor.

Regards,

Ishwar G Mulani.

Author of Book : Engineering Science and Application Design for Belt Conveyors.

Author of Book : Belt Feeder Design and Hopper Bin Silo

Advisor / Consultant for Bulk Material Handling System & Issues.

Pune, India.

Tel.: 0091 (0)20 25871916

Email: parimul@pn2.vsnl.net.in ■

Just a quick note, it is extremely important that the pulley alignment is square and level to the belt. Many times I have seen surveyors bought in who shoot the alignment off structure that may not have been installed correctly. The easiest way to check whether a pulley is level and square is by using simple tools such as a plumb bob off the pulley face to check create an alignment of the face to the belt and then checking to see if the line that is created is exactly at right angles to the centre line of the belt. This process can be used to give you the exact measurement that you may need to adjust the pulley by. The pulley levels can be checked with a spirit level or similar. Remember to correct for any unbalanced lagging wear as a pulley that has been installed incorrectly will eventually have its lagging worn abnormally by the belt.

Cheers

Colin Benjamin

Gulf Conveyor Systems Pty Ltd

www.conveyorsystemstechnology.com ■