Optimum Design and Cost Characteristic of Small Conveyor

Abstract

Although there are many works dealing with the economic analysis of a long conveyor, the information about a short conveyor is insufficient. This study, thus, deals with the short conveyor by studying the effect of belt width, belt length, convey capacity, and conveyor inclination angle on the cost characteristic of short conveyor. The study was done by calculating the conveyor belt widths and their supports that could service a given convey capacity, conveyor length, and inclination angle. The cost of conveyor corresponding to each belt width was, later, determined. After the total cost of each conveyor had been already calculated, the lowest total cost of conveyor for a given convey capacity, inclination angle, and conveyor length was found. The relationships between the belt widths, belt length, convey capacity, inclination angle and the lowest total cost was, finally, analyzed. In addition, the increase of the lowest total cost, when an overdesign of convey capacity was made, was also investigated. The study was done by case study of conveyor of convey capacity of 50-500 ton h^-1, the belt width of 400-1500 mm, the conveyor length of 10-100 m and conveyor inclination angle of 0-30°. The results showed that the lowest total cost was found, for all given values, at the belt width range of 400-500 mm. The lowest total cost increased with the increase of the belt length. For normal convey capacity of 50 ton h^-1, an overdesigned value of 50 ton h^-1 caused the lowest total cost to increase more than 7% compared with the lowest total cost in case of normal convey capacity. For normal convey capacity more than 100 ton h^-1, an overdesigned value of 50 ton h^-1 made the increase of the lowest total cost less than 2%.