BELT SCRAPER INNOVATION
By: Scott Bahr
We’ve all heard the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We see this often in the mining world. Far too often, when it comes to maintenance and servicing capital assets, people see investments in innovation or improvements taking too much time if the current method seems to be working “just fine.” However, are we really okay with being just fine? At Bit Service, we— and undoubtedly many of you reading this—want far better than fine.
Highlighting this current state of affairs is not meant to be a criticism of maintenance staff by any means. Instead, we see this trend as a direct result of workers being forced to stretch limited human and financial resources to serve the needs of growing mines in tough conditions. It’s a tricky and multi-faceted situation, but one that we seek to help remedy.
MAINTAINING CONVEYOR BELTS WITH STARCLEAN®
One particular area of improvement we wanted to address is the maintenance and protection of the conveyor belt system. When optimized, conveyor belts are the standard for moving bulk material around and out of a mine, through the processing plants, and out the loadout. However, when not optimized, they are subject to sticky material adhesion issues, material spillage at transfer points, and even tracking misalignment.
For years, these troubling issues were observed by our personnel when underground and visiting sites, and it was always an issue that the mines had just evolved to deal with in creative ways. We decided that simply making do was no longer enough. So recently, we came to meet and eventually partner with STARCLEAN® and were amazed by the technological advances the company had made in the areas of conveyor tending equipment.
Most impressive in STARCLEAN®’s innovative collection are its clever versions of belt scrapers and cleaners. Finding these were fortunate, as the biggest issue maintenance planners and engineers had reported to us was that the mine site did not employ belt scrapers for removing adhered material, as the site tends to stretch out the life cycle of their belts. This usually results in some damage to the belt covering. Or, they employ a system using mechanical rather than vulcanized belt splices. In either case, the predicament remained: These workers had tried a scraper in the past, and the aggressive nature of the scraper would compromise the splice or peeled belt cover, risking tearing the belt.
This is where we were so impressed with the unique design of the STARCLEAN® primary scraper. Not only does the scraper employ a variable tensioning system to keep the scraper blades on the belt, but the individual scraper segments on each scraper blade provide their own tension and articulation. This allows for the required flexibility to both remove adhered material and articulate over and avoid damaged areas and splices.
These same belt scrapers have the added—and vital—benefit of reducing the need for specialized tools and equipment when it comes time to maintain them. In fact, the worn scraper blade segments do not require any tools to change them with new blade segments. This is an amazing development for maintenance staff in reducing the time for the job, increasing safety, and eliminating an unnecessary source of frustration. After all, let’s be real: In a wet, sticky application like that present in processing plants, the fewer fasteners one has to contend with, the better.
Here, we have just touched on the innovative primary scrapers from STARCLEAN®. However, the same level of innovation has been brought to the company’s secondary scrapers, transfer point seals, return scrapers, and self-aligning rollers. This is a complete system designed to eliminate material spillage, reduce dust and fines, and keep the belt free of adhesion, thus extending its service life.
At Bit Service, we are excited to bring innovations like these to the Canadian mining industry, as the value provided far outweighs the investment in the installed equipment. This is a win for the maintenance staff at the mine, providing them the chance to deploy personnel to other trouble areas of the mine.
If you would like to know more about how we can help apply this innovative technology to your material handling system, reach out to us at Bit Service to discuss your many options.