Selection of Material for Facing Drive Drum of Belt Conveyor

Abstract

It is known that conveyor operates in chemically aggressive and abrasive environments; for this reason the drive drum of belt conveyor wears out rather rapidly. It is noted that the lining of the conveyor drum increases coefficient of friction between the conveyor drum and the conveyor belt, reduces the belt wear rate, and also protects against corrosion and abrasive wear. The plot of the PU-60 polyurethane wear rate as function of load when rolling on steel is presented. It is noted that increasing the load increases the strength of adhesive junction between steel and polyurethane rollers; friction wear causes fatigue failure of surface layers of the materials. Besides, the plot of the PU-80 polyurethane wear rate as function of load when rolling on steel is presented. The plot of the polyurethanes wear rate as function of hardness of polyurethane is presented, which shows that the lowest wear rate is demonstrated by the hardest polyurethane, PU-80. The bar chart of static friction coefficient for PU-60 and PU-80 polyurethanes demonstrates that the optimal material for lining the drive drum of a conveyor belt is PU-80. The plot of the rubber wear rate as function of load at a speed of 1 m/s is presented. The plot shows that the wear rate increases with increasing the load. This is due to the effect of two factors: growing contact deformations of the surface layer of the rubber and increasing the contact area of mating parts. It is noted that IRP-1347 rubber is less susceptible to wear than "REMAGRIP" rubber. This allows using IRP-1347 rubber in aggressive environments. The bar chart of static friction coefficient for the rubber presented in the paper shows that the investigated IRP-1347 and REMAGRIP rubber grades have the required value of static friction coefficient for use as lining material for the drive drum. The plot of the wear rate as function of the rubber hardness and as function of the polyurethane hardness is presented. In practice, it is proved that the best material for lining the drive drum is PU-80.