Influence of tension and release in piped conveyor belt on change of normal contact forces in hexagonal idler housing for pipe conveyor loaded with material

• Equalizing of the contact forces according to the required tension forces.
• Simulation of the contact forces as a result of various operational factors.
• Regressive model parameters applied for interpolation of the contact forces.
• Calculation of the model parameters and evaluation of model statistical significance.
• Topographical graphs of contact forces for idler roll positions.

Every kind of transported bulk material influences operational characteristics of the pipe conveyors significantly. Therefore it is necessary so that users of the pipe belt conveyors are able to perform a more detailed investigation and monitoring of these characteristics. Thanks to information concerning the operational characteristics it is possible to analyse durability of the conveyor belt and extent of belt wearing. However, the process of data collection and identification is demanding and expensive on condition that such process would be realised only by means of measuring equipment. Much more effective is obtaining of the needed information using generalized knowledge in the form of graphs. Every operator of the pipe belt conveyor is able to obtain the required information based on known input values using the corresponding graphs. Afterwards, the obtained information can be applied in a real operation. This article deals with determination of the contact force values for a certain type of the conveyor belt. The contact forces can be estimated in the intersection of axis at the individual idler roll positions in dependence on the tension force and in dependence on the filling rate of the cross-sectional area of the piped belt with the material, taking into consideration the performed experimental measurements.