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Six tips for optimising your installation

This article provides 6 tips for making your installations reliable, durable and manageable. This will help extend the time between maintenance stops. The tips follow below; each tip is clickable.

1. The right people
Be sure that your staff consists of skilled people who are well-trained for managing and maintaining your installations. Due to a lack of knowledge and expertise, installations often are not optimally used and are prone to unnecessary stoppages, causing valuable production time to be lost. A good mechanic is capable of detecting problems at an early stage and to resolve them as quickly as possible. Our advice is that you do not economise on good people; they ultimately make the difference. By developing a maintenance protocol and by preventively maintaining your installations you reduce the probability of defects occurring during the production process.

2. To measure is to know
By frequently conducting inspections you acquire early insight into any dysfunctional system performance. Incorporating inspections into the maintenance protocol makes it possible to properly plan the execution of preventive maintenance. Unforeseen stoppages generally are the largest cost item. Due to production loss and the necessary ad hoc actions, the additional cost are anything but small. For example, the expensive overtime hours of your staff or temporary workers, and the delays incurred by trucks or ships because of the standstill in the flow of goods. Conducting inspections and acting effectively represents the first step towards preventive maintenance.

3. Inspecting and testing
Hi Rollers, chain conveyors and bucket elevators are enclosed systems. This means that not all of the activity within the installation is visible to the naked eye. On the other hand, heavy loads are often placed on these installations and they sometimes run 24/7 and at 500 MT/hour. In this situation it is important to measure activity carefully. High-risk conditions, such as misalignment, product spillage and wear and tear could form an explosion hazard.

By measuring the temperature of bearings you acquire insight into possible overheating of the bearings at an early stage. The PT100V3C bearing temperature sensor with a lubricating grease nipple was specially developed for precisely measuring universal bearing housings. Wear and tear, heavy loads, improper lubrication, etcetera, can cause a bearing to heat up to such an extent that it becomes a source of ignition for a potential dust explosion.

By installing a misalignment monitoring system, Rub-Block type RB200DN with a PT100 sensor, you immediately receive a signal as soon as the belt touches the sensor, which then transmits heat to the fail-safe PT100 sensor. This sensor is connected to the PLC system. This, combined with the bearing temperature allows you to control the wear and tear, overload or misalignment of the elevator belt.

Installing sensors that measure the flow of goods, sensors that monitor the installation, such as the bearing temperature, misalignment and slip, means that you will always be one step ahead of unexpected stoppages.

4. Enhancing durability and optimisation
The timely replacement of abrasion-resistant lining materials prevents permanent damage to and potential product spillage within the installation. Conducting checks enables you to make a sound assessment of the required activities. Frequently checking these areas enables you to make timely replacements. This generally makes it possible to schedule repairs in between costly production runs. Kryptane® / Blue-Ox ® abrasion-resistant polyurethane liners are noise-attenuating and also offer a wear reduction solution. The development of a replacement system enables you to quickly replace abrasion-resistant lining materials at each location as a means of minimising stoppages. By keeping a spare set in stock you avoid any surprises.

5. Smart investing and repairing wisely
When you invest in durability, you will save money over the long run. When you settle on lower prices you will save money over the short term. The potential business risks and the additional repair cost associated with this generally quickly wipe out any gains made this way. This is therefore not cost-efficient. Smart investing also means, for example, that when you require a new drive pulley you select one that comes with a replaceable pulley lagging. The lining protects the basic pulley and the elevator belt and can easily be replaced on-site using in-house staff. In addition, when there is a need to replace a bearing, it is smart to replace the bearings on both sides at the same time and to check the shaft for signs of wear and tear. When you replace only one bearing as a corrective measure, there is the possibility that you will need another stoppage to replace the second one a little while later. The cost of a bearing is insignificant in comparison to the labour and stoppage cost incurred to replace both bearings on separate occasions. When you acquire a high-quality conveyor or elevator belt, the probability is high that it will have a longer service life. You will then save on labour cost over time. By investing in the right fastener, the belt’s service life can sometimes be extended by many years. Furthermore, this prevents the pulleys from being damaged.

6. Good documentation helps in emergency situations
When you properly document your installation and the associated components and incorporate them into a maintenance plan, you will be able to act more quickly when unexpected problems arise. By means of keeping the right stock of spare parts and making a reliable prognosis you avoid the need for spending hours looking for the right part for the relevant installation. This also enables you to forward the right information to your supplier in case the supplier maintains this stock on your behalf. When you maintain precise information for each bucket elevator about the bolt hole pattern, the bucket, the fastener, length, breaking strength, etcetera, we can immediately get down to work for you and you avoid wasting unnecessary time looking for information.

With our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) approach, we help you save money over the long term and to reduce unforeseen operating risks. Contact a Muller Beltex specialist for an appointment. This does not cost you anything and you always leave that much wiser.

Muller Beltex workshops highly successful

During the past period, Muller Beltex conducted various workshops for the technical staff of various customers; OEM’s, technical service providers and end-users. Tailor-made programmes were developed together with these customers to set up the full-day or half-day workshops as efficiently as possible for the exchange of knowledge at the Muller Beltex Academy.

Aside from anticipating market demand for knowledge and support, the Academy also contributes to our knowledge position.

If you would like us to conduct a workshop for your technical staff in our knowledge institute, we would be pleased to set up a programme in consultation with you.

Launch of new elevator belt fastener at GEAPS 2016

At the GEAPS 2016 in Austin (USA), at the end of February, our partner Maxi-Lift, introduced our newly developed elevator belt fastener, the Maxi-Ultra. The design and development of this fastener was approached from a belt point of view based on clamping forces and friction. The direct reason for developing the new product was increasing safety in the clamp fastener.

This has resulted in a lighter fastener (which means the plant is even better balanced) that can be used on several types of belt from 630 N/mm to 1000 N/mm in the Polysur® range. The fastener is fitted with a replaceable NBR wear part to prevent belt wear and to ensure a quiet and smooth passage over the pulleys. All things considered, the fastener makes a substantial contribution to increasing the lifespan of the elevator belt.

For higher tensile strengths, the larger Maxi-Splice is available and for lighter belts, the CI and Gripwell fasteners provide the best solution.

If you would like more detailed technical information about the Maxi-Ultra elevator belt fastener, you can download the datasheet or contact one of our specialists. We will be happy to assist.

*Production has started and we will keep you updated about availability! We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Longer lengths and wider elevator belts with new belt cutting machine

The processing speed of bulk goods has become increasingly important and the dimensions of elevators are getting bigger and bigger. The dimensions are changing in order to achieve maximum capacity. Muller Beltex is moving with this trend which is why we have introduced a number of modifications in our production process to meet this demand and provide you with even better and quicker service. The arrival of a new belt cutting machine means we are able to accurately manufacture belts measuring up to two metres wide and 300 metres long, according to requirements.

Using our unique CNC punching/drilling machine, we are able to punch an 1800 mm wide punching pattern in elevator belts of up to 1900 mm wide. All this means we are now able to offer you a seamless total package so that your order can be ready for assembly in the shortest possible time.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our specialists.

Increase your knowledge and expertise at the Muller Beltex Academy

In recent months, Muller Beltex has set up the “Muller Beltex Academy”, a knowledge and workshop institute in Pijnacker. We invite our business friends for discussion, training and exchange of knowledge. We use theory and practice as a basis on which to share our experiences. The Academy is also used to train our own employees & distributors and hold workshops given by our specialists.

Workshops on how elevators work, the application of process monitoring (including ATEX) of your plant, making elevator belts endless and the use and installation of Kryptane® for reducing noise and wear are among the available options.

The purpose is the joint enhancement of knowledge and transfer of expertise to maximise the potential of your plant and create a safe and durable workplace. We take you from theory right through to installation and carrying out correct maintenance, enabling us to help you extend the service life of your components. Please contact us for more information.

“METALLAG” bucket elevator pulley lagging for high heat applications

In belt/bucket elevators the design and condition of the pulleys is of crucial importance to the life of the belt. In elevators handling very hot material the belts are heat resistant, e.g. type Polysur T150.

However, the rubbers used as friction layer on the drive pulleys, the lagging, are only available in low heat resistant qualities. The result is that in many elevators handling hot material, such as occurs in elevators handling hot minerals, cement and fly ash, the pulley lagging needs to be replaced frequently during the lifetime of a belt. Once a lagging is affected by the high temperature reigning in the elevator, it crumbles and is lost and when that happens the belt rides over an uneven surface leading to tracking problems and wear to the belt.

Muller Beltex has designed and supplied “METALLAG” all metal bolted on pulley laggings, with a tracking crown for high heat applications. The current practical results show that in severe cases handling product of +165°C. where laggings and pulleys were replaced every 6 months, the investment was earned back after 1.5 year, during which replacement of pulleys and laggings was avoided. The condition of the belts after this period of time have clearly improved, compared to the previous situation.

The life expectancy of the “METALLAG” all metal lagging is 3-5 years. The material is very abrasion-resistant and offers a very positive grip on the belt avoiding belt slip.

Would you like to have more information? Please contact one of our specialists on the telephone number mentioned below.

Advice about problem elevators

Muller Beltex has many years of experience and global expertise in the bulk and process industry. That is why we, as a renowned knowledge and service provider, are often approached by equipment manufacturers and end users who are encountering problems with their equipment.

Their questions may involve durability, the wish to reduce excessive wear or capacity issues. In this article, we will enter into a specific problem we often come across in more older elevators used in the agricultural sector, which is product taken down again in the return part of a bucket elevator, so called “back-legging”. What does this mean?

Product that is not correctly or not discharged from the elevator bucket and is therefore dropped back into the down-going elevator leg. This may be because the elevators were designed for example in the nineteen eighties for a capacity of 70 tons per hour at a certain belt speed and the elevator was fed in the up-going elevator leg. At the time, only one type of product was transported with the elevator in question. However, over the following decades, the tonnage may have been increased to perhaps 100 tons per hour, transporting multiple products with a variety of densities at the same belt speed.

In addition the feeding of the elevator could be both in the up-going and also in the down-going leg of the elevator. Because the product is ending up in the elevator boot section, the buckets need to dig up the product from the boot of the elevator, which leads to unnecessary wear and additional stress on the bucket elevator components and the required capacities are no longer realised.

Extensive inspection of the installation allows us to study the problems. We analyse the existing situation and draw up a plan of approach in consultation with our engineering department. This plan of approach is presented to our customer, together with a specified quotation.

Expert calculation of the correct drive and return pulley, elevator bucket, bucket formation, belt speed, and if applicable, adjustment of the construction itself allows us to successfully solve complex problems like the one described above.

Do you have a question or problem for which you would like our support? Please do not hesitate to contact us. Our telephone number is listed below.