Conveyor belt 1

[GermanOgre]

Hi I am encountering problems with a conveyor belt recycling soap back to an extruder.

The soap comes in the form of:
* billets (length 450mm)
* soap pieces
* soap waste from the die.

The soap is loaded via another belt and dropped on the horizontal part of the conveyor system. Then the conveyor belt carries the soap at an incline of about 40° about 3,5m into the hopper of the extruder.

The belt is 80cm wide and has along the length of it square "compartments" with borders that are perpendicular to the belt (height 5cm). These compartments are responsible for carrying the soap up the belt. The borders parallel to the sides of the belt are in the form of a sine wave in order to compensate for stresses at the pulleys. Unfortunately, this border is 10cm set inward towards the middle of the belt. This feature, in addition to the fact that along the incline the walls of the conveyor are 4cm wider than the belt, allows soap pieces to roll off and over the compartment walls and land inbetween the sinus girder and the conveyor belt's metal wall. These soap pieces then lay there and are slowly abraded by the belt. These abrasions accumulate underneath the belt and cause us problems.

Is there any way the fight the root of the problem, to make sure when the belt doesn't get overloaded? When just a couple billets are present on the belt it never seems to happen just when I overload it with 4-5 at once.

Is there some kind of blocker-system that doesn't require cleaning/maintenance/control that would limit the number of soap material entering the belt? The manufacturer that produced the belt is out of business (I wonder why???) So I really do not know who else to contact. I'd rather fight the problem and not the symptom. I.e. not bring in the conveyor belt wall.

I can offer pics if needed and can answer questions if they should arise.
Thanks in advanced

-Chris in soap production

 

[bklauba]

Pictures would certainly help. There are a wide variety of belt cleaning systems, and also numerous conveyor belt "containment" systems (modular skirt board comes to mind), that would reduce the fallout from the belt, plus clean the belt at a location where the "carry-back" material can then be managed (recycled or discarded).

None of these is maintenance free, but some are better than others. A good trade-off would be if these additional items req'd far less maintenance than what you have now, which is likely.

Send pics please.

BK

 

[GermanOgre]

Hello BK,
thanks for the quick response. First here is a link to some pics of the conveyor belt. This unit has a less steep angle of about 30° than the other ones have.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48103407@N00/

I am hoping that a solution can be found for the material on the feeder belt. Maybe some mechanism (skirt with heavy weighted ends maybe) that prohibits large loads to pile up on the conveyor belt at once.
Just a thought.

-chris

 

[pelts]

Chris:
I'm looking at your pics and wondering if there is not a simple solution in building baffles that will hold or direct the product to stay centered between the conveyor verticle side [sine] walls. Have the baffles form a "vee", ending about .5 meter down stream. Excess product will be contained in the baffles and vee formation until a cell/ compartment has enough open space to take the excess.
If your problem occures because the product rebounds when it hits the conveyor, the baffles should the care of it.
If your problem is because the feed is inconsistant, then the baffles should solve the problem up to a point. Beyond that point you can slow down the feed conveyor. I would suggest making the baffle with UHMW and have them hinged and spring loaded to pivot. As the "vee" becomes loaded up, the opposing baffle walls would hinge open, allowing the release of more of the "trapped" product.
Pelts

 

[bklauba]

Some ideas from pelts. Another option is to use vertical rollers. A combo of rollers and UHMW often works.

In the event that ingots get trapped in a "traffic jam", adding a small impact vibrator should allow "traffic" flow.

Some experimentation is likely necessary to get the right mix of these elements.

BK

 

[KrisB4]

I suppose there's not control of how much soap you get from the feeding conveyor onto the inclined one?
Could you make some baffles that would prevent overloading the inclined conveyor?
If the soap rolls down due to high inclination I would try a belt with higher borders (both transverse and sine ones).
I would also try different belt - either very smooth as it is often very grippy for smooth products or soft, texturized one (also depends if it needs to be in sanitary execution).
In my previous factory (chewing gum) we used Habasit belts confected by Enitra in Walbrzych (Poland) - top quality and very good service.

We had similar situation with pellets.
The problem most mostly solved be controlled feeding the inclined belt (loading hopper with vibratory feeder).
we also modified the inclined belt that it is straight (inlined all the way, no horizontal part).
This lessened the inlination angle and eliminated uneven belt running on the transition (belt vibration helped product to fall back).

Best regards,

Kris