I would push the chute down through the rubber so that the rubber goes down instead of up as what it appears to be in your sketch. Less chance of it catching on anything from above.

Have a lip on the chute that forces the rubber down and will not catch on the rubber. ■

Another idea is to force it open with rollers.

Have a roller slighly wider than the rubber with a holding lip or concaved at each side of the chute and one identical roller up above the chute.

Then feed the rubber under the first roller up over the higher roller the back down under the other lower roller. This would leave it open at the chute and closed everywhere else. The rubber would need to be anchored at each end which I would imagine you have that now. ■

Originally Posted by minemechaz

Good day, we have a 30ft (approx.) long tripper car that runs on rails. It has two discharge chutes one on each side. We run copper ore on it, about 1/2" on size. To avoid the dust coming from the bins below the tripper car, we are using old rubber conveyors attached to the floor with bolts. The tripper car moves through the rubber while it is moving forward or backwards. It is sort of like a seal (like a big lip) but because it is made of rubber, the tripper car can move through it while advancing. However, we had a problem last week when one big dust cover section was damaged by the tripper car and it was ripped from the floor. Looks like one part of the dust cover was damaged on one end and it got trapped between the rail and the tripper car.

Attached you will find a rough drawing of the idea and how it works.

My question is if anyone knows a better system to prevent dust coming from bins below a tripper car that covers the rail hole while the tripper car is moving forward or backwards.

Thanks.

Possibly another viable option would be to install a pair of rotary sweeper heads-

one on each end of the tripper they are used to clean light snow and leaves off of sidewalks, parking lots with garden tractors etc..

It can easily be done with an electric motor for each broom and reduction pulleys

to provide v-belt power to the brooms.

It would take a little work to set it up but it would clean it to bare floor at all times pushing the fines forward and away from the tripper in either direction.

A pair of sweeper broom heads that fit on a BCS tiller would work well with a V belt drive for speed reduction. The parts for the sweeper are easily obtainable too.

The time consuming part is simply matching components to fit the sweeper head drive (male to female if my memory is still good.

The sweeper head also has gauge wheels to sweep and not wear the sweeper wheels to quickly.

lzaharis ■

Originally Posted by minemechaz

I think I got your idea Gary. Having one roller at the bottom, one at the top in both sides so the belt will travel above the chutes. At this time, the rubber is anchored at one end and only the opposite side rises when the tripper car travels. Let me work on your idea, thanks!

Not quite - you would need 3 rollers - 2 at the bottom (one on each side of the chute) and one above the chute (possibly may need 2 up there at the same elevation to each other if the geometry doesn't allow for one) . The 2 lower rollers would hold the rubber down where the upper roller(s) would lift it over the chute and always open at the discharge. ■

Originally Posted by minemechaz

I just come from the site Gary and found out that they used this idea some years ago (I got here last November). They had some issues with it, mostly on conveyors' side traveling. I think I will work on a hybrid idea I got from your input, leaving the dust cover (old conveyor) on the floor, and use some vertical rollers to prevent ripping while traveling. I'll put some pictures tomorrow, for some reason I can't upload pictures from my office to photobucket. Izaharis, your idea is good but the thing is that there are holes on the floor so sweeping could not be an option...

Thanks.

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Providing you remove the rubber belting-

OK so what is wrong with sweeping the dust into the holes in front of the tripper that you will pass over as the dust will fall into them anyway?

A traveling tripper would allow for a small water tank to spray a mist in the sweeper rolls to keep the dust down.

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Nothing short of making a new pair of shortened chutes with lower angle drop chutes feeding a pair of telescoping loading tubes(bellows) I see no end to your predicament in my opinion.

The telescoping chutes would have to be wired into the forward and reverse switch on the tripper, and set up with limit switches so if both of the tubes are not fully retracted the tripper can not move and end up destroying the loading tubes.

The tubes retract as the pile is filled(due to the paddle switch) and when the pile is at its maximum it will be fully retracted.

It sounds more like a bad ventilation problem in your storage bunker I think. ■

Originally Posted by minemechaz

That is a good idea, however, the thing (or constraint) here is that the discharge chutes are not continous; they are a series of holes separated by solid floor about 12 ft long (see webpage attached with another drawing of a tripper car quite similar to the one we have here: http://www.forcecontrol.com/Download...pper%20Car.pdf). That's why our chute has to be always above the holes. As the tripper car passes through a chute (hole), the dust cover falls down and "seals" the hole preventing dust from below. I'm trying to think on other types of dust covers (if any) for this purpose...

Thank you for your input Gary.

Dear Mr.Minemechaz,

Cannot it be possible to provide a flexible chute made of rubber , just below the solid mettalic chutes? Flexible chute may go down automatically at the required holes because of it's self weight and pulled out when the tripper moves to next hole. It will have the dust covering effet also. You need to ensure that it is properly attached with the metallic chute so that it may not fall down or struck up somewhere when the tripper moves.

Regards, ■

As Gary has mentioned, the proper way to do it was to anchor the belt at each end and run it under & over rollers attached to the tripper. It was called a sealing belt and required a stiffer weft to bridge the slot. They were used on coke & alumina handling projects during the 70's & 80's. You cannot substantially seal in the dust by your method shown...there is a transition gap (or four)....but it's a nice sketch.■

Originally Posted by minemechaz

I'm sorry Izaharis, I still don't understand how could I prevent dust from beneath the surface to rise to the tripper car level without a seal. I understand the idea of sweeping but can't see how to seal the holes while the tripper car is not in that place.

Our budget is very low so I can't afford too many mods. Here is the general idea of what we have and what we might end up doing. In this picture, there is a very similar tripper car like ours:



This is what I've seen around and also we tried in the past. I found out that because of the force made by the seal belts (on each side), the structure was damaged and cracked in some points:



And this is what I would like to install, a combination of ideas. We have this currently installed, without the rollers, so we might end up giving it a try:

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1.The the bellows tube is the diameter of the chute/or sized to fit the dumping slot.

Start up

2. The loading bellows lowers to the bottom of the piles desired length it could reach all the way to the bottom if desired. as the ore is dumped through the bellows the bellows retracts due to the paddle switch contacting the piles angle of repose.

a. When that section of bin is filled it retracts completely and by this time you have lowered the opposite bellows to begin filling that side of the bin.

b. The opposite bellows repeats the process until it fills that side of the bin up when that side is filled the tripper is moved to the next position to fill the next section.

Something tells me that you are continually running.spilling ore while moving from bin to bin and that adds to the dust problem.

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Short of cutting one continuos hole in the floor of the bunker to allow both chutes to pass unheeded(and using the loading bellows by or increasing ventilation in the floor above the bunker I see no solution in my opinion.

Some time with a cutting torch or concrete saw would be in order as the bunker could be filled continuosly moving only several inches at a time eliminating almost all the dust as the pile will grow ahead of the tripper as the ore will have almost no falling distance.

How difficult would it be to install a spray bar for a little water at the tail pulley of the tripper belt? A little water goes along way.

A few big fans in the end walls of the bunker room may cost less and do more good with your lack of ventilation.

two FD fans and 2 ID fans would work to pull all the fine dust out if all else fails.

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Now that I see that your tripper does not have a segregating chute to deliver to one side or the other GGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only solid sealing method you will have any luck with is having thick sheet metal plates connected to the floor of the bunker with small coil springs holding them in place and the tripper car is going to have a pusher bar to push each plate away and hold it open while the tripper is dumping and pull back into place to seal the bunker.

Further:

Take a deck of cards or 3 by five index cards

Take a protractor and cut away one end of the 24 index cards following the inner or outer curve, the remaining curve becomes the sealing edge over the open bunker section.

secure the index cards at the center of the other narrow side to act as the pivot point perhaps with a thumbtack on a cork board

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The sheet metal acts as a flap to seal the bunker

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By using two springs to return the sheet metal to the horizontal it seals on the return and forward pass of the tripper.

use your stapler to act as the tripper in the example

the devil in the details is figuring how to push the sheets aside with a piece of angle iron attached to the tripper car with a roller to bump up against the sheet metal on the floor and allow it to pass with no resistance use two vertical rollers attached to the sheet metal to allow travel in both directions.

A little time and detail work with a model using the stapler as the tripper car should work out the issues.

Perhaps raising the sheet metal slightly off the bunker floor with a bit of 1" angle iron with the V pointing down should do the trick to allow swift passage of the bunker covers

lzaharis ■

Originally Posted by minemechaz

.....

This is what I've seen around and also we tried in the past. I found out that because of the force made by the seal belts (on each side), the structure was damaged and cracked in some points:

What great force from 6 idling rollers caused the structure to crack? You've really got some cowboy welders or designers.

Material cannot pass the shallow chute shown.

The discharge pulley has slightly less tension than the bend pulley so why is the bend pulley so thin?

The system shown in 2 is the only one that can & ever has been able to come anywhere near to confining dust & keeping out rain. (Sheds apart.)

End of story...but I bet there's a sequel coming. ■