Hello Mechnique...

When we did the inclined shaft conveyor at Majuba mine here in South Africa, we used Wagner Schwelm clamps for the St 4500 belt.

The conveyor was 1200mm wide, 1.5km long with a lift of 412m and had a single 3.4 Megawatt drive. As such, the client insisted (quite wisely) on decent (though somewhat expensive) belt clamps, as it was a major installation.

Nilos and others can most probably assist as well. It is obviously very important to clamp with even pressure across the belt, and Wagner Schwelm clamps have hydraulic sacks inside the clamps to achieve this.

This does not really fit your "spring activated , hydraulic powered off, fail safe conveyor belt clamps", but will do the job nicely though.

Good luck

LSL Tekpro ■

While on the subject of belt clamps, many companies have excellent lock out and tag out procedures when working on conveyor belts. One thing I have seen lacking is some type of block out procedure. Certainly a block out procedure is recommended when working on belts that are not flat. However, there have been instances when a totally flat belt, if stalled under load may need blocking when working near pinch points. Tensions in the belt when relieved can cause the belt to move. I would not recommend relying on the back stop. ■

In my opinion, Canada Conveyor Belt has design and operated the safest belt clamp and control. They built the clamps and controls for Los Pelambres ST-7800 N/mm with 536 and 527meter drops on 5905m and 5281m lenghts respectively. Collahuasi with

These are the world's two largest downhill systems, based on belt strength with 10000 kW regenerative power on each.

They build clamps and controls. THe clamp and control is their own design. They pioneered the dual clamp concept.

The design has evolved from installing many conveyors of great complexity and where safety is the necessity like Batu Hautu in Indonesia, the belts of significance at Escondida and Colluhuasi.

Larry Kuzik, CCB's president, can be reached by phone at area code 604 (Surey, Bristish Columbia, Canada) 530-1234. His website:

http://www.conveyorbelttech.com/

Here you will see a clamp system. ■

Send me you contact details and I will track him down so that he can respond directly to you.

He has a love affair with Chile these days. Also many other parts of the world. Since I am for the next day in his office time zone, I think we might have some luck.

Send email, phone, fax and best time to contact. ■

I talked to Larry this afternoon, He said send him at a new contact:

email: canadabelt@telus.net

website: wwwcbtech.cl

or ring his cell phone: Canada 604-644-3343 Pacifc Coast Time

He said his e-mailbox got stuffed when he went to Chile for a few weeks.. ■