Engineering Science

And
Application Design
For
BELT CONVEYORS
By
ISHWAR G. MULANI
B.E. (Mechanical)
(Formerly Head of Project Engg. Dept. Krupp-India)

The compliments on book (manuscript); from world renown personalities in the field of bulk material
handling.

“ We have seen this book and found to be interesting and useful for design engineers, application
engineers and users of belt conveyors and bulk material handling plants. The book provides
comprehensive information on design as well as application engineering for wide-ranging practical
needs. We wish all the success for the book Engineering Science And Application Design for Belt
Conveyors - Dr.- Ing. R.H.Wohlbier Germany.”

“ We have seen this book. Our impression is that the book is an excellent source of information in all
aspects of belt conveyor technology. We are pleasantly surprised at the amount of details included in the
book and already see that it will become a standard reference within the office.
We have specialization in designing and building long, high capacity overland conveyors and the
rationale behind some of our decisions in designing such systems has been difficult to find in print, at
least until now. The author has managed to include a lot of information that can only be gathered by
years of practical experience. We appreciate the author’s efforts and wish great success with this
publication.
- Steve Harrington, P. Eng., Vice President Krupp Canada.”

“ I have read this book on belt conveyors, and really am most impressed by how the author has
tackled a most challenging subject. The author’s knowledge gleaned from many years in industry shines
through. It is particularly pleasing to see the derivation of formulae that have been used for a long time. I
am sure that this book will become acknowledged as another industry standard alongside the trusted
guides the CEMA handbook – Belt conveyors for bulk materials; and UK’ standard publication, the
MHEA – Recommended practice for troughed belt conveyors.
- Alan Jackson. Committee Member, BSI British Standards Organisation
Committee Member, IMechE - Institute of mechanical Engineers, U. K. Bulk
Material Handling Group.
Vice President and Chairman of technical committee MHEA UK (Material handling
engineer’s association U. K.)
Member - Ports U. K. group.”
Write /Communicate on following address to get this book :

I.G.Mulani
PUNE – 411021, India

Telephone : 0091-(0) 20-25871916

E-mail : [email protected]
Website : www.conveyor.ishwarmulani.com

© Ishwar G. Mulani 2003

Government of India Copy right registration No. L-22304/2005.
All rights reserved. No part of this book can be copied, reproduced (in any form) without the
prior written permission of the owner, nor can this book be sold or resold in any other cover in
which originally sold by the owner. Any breach would entail civil and criminal action without
further notice.

Publisher :
Mrs. Madhu.I.Mulani
PUNE – 411021, India

Editions :
First print : 8th November 2000
First reprint : 30th September 2002
Second reprint : 1st January 2006
Third reprint with additional chapters and topics : 1st November 2012

Copyrights with Author and Publisher

Printing By :
Nachiket Mahajan
Endeem Marketing

Copying/Photo-copying of book is immoral / illegal and spoils the book. This book or any portion
of it can not be copied/reproduced / published without written permission from the author.
Preface

PREFACE

This book deals with the fundamentals of belt conveyor design for
handling of bulk materials. Any belt conveyor design mainly concerns
with the calculation of capacity, belt width, belt speed, drive power
and belt tensions. These parameters have profound effect on overall
design, construction and ultimately the cost of conveyor as a whole.
Therefore, the right design for these parameters is of paramount
importance.

Various methods and formulae are already in use for conveyor design. Much of the published
information is seen all around; sometimes mismatching with each other and often without availability of
supporting derivation for designer. The designer can only make the right design if he has complete
clarity on the theoretical background for the formula being used.

In view of above, this book aims at derivation / publication of various formulae and norms from first
principles of engineering-science for in-depth perception of the subject matter to the designer. This
provides complete information to the designer and automatically clarifies the basic guidelines and
limitation if any, for the particular design approach being followed.

As the engineering analysis and derivations are based on basic rules; the book is likely to have long
time utility. The dynamics of belt conveyor mainly concerns with motion and forces, and hence same are
on the basis of very well known Newton’s law of motion. The author has tried to give new dimension to
the subject matter by applying analytical engineering approach to various practices being followed for
rationalization of data and thorough understanding for the readers at large.

Although the book has necessary theoretical background, but it is written for the purpose of direct use
for application-design for contractual requirements. This is a ‘decision making’ book for design and
implementation purpose. Having done all the analysis of a particular topic, specific and clear-cut opinion
/ suggestions are incorporated to assist the designer / user for his quick / correct decision, to suit
contract needs.

For such book to be of practical value, it needs to conform to commercially acceptable standard and
norms. The book design-approach primarily relies on ISO-5048, DIN-22101 and latest practices / norms
being followed in this field all over the world. The readers, who are used to other standards in Europe or
USA practice will also find this book very useful to get new insight into the subject and to comply to the
respective standards in a more exact / easy manner. This is due to the fact that although calculation
style could be different, the underlying considerations and principles are same.

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Preface

The book is written in S.I units. However, clear notes are given at the end of certain chapters to use the
same in FPS units, which are presently prevailing in USA for belt conveyor technology. It is clarified that
for FPS units, the force unit of poundal is used which is synonymous to Newton in S.I. units. This makes
the transformation from S.I. system to FPS system quite simple, i.e. it does not need any change in S.I.
formula. Only FPS units are to be used in S.I. formula and the derived result is in poundals. This
eliminates the vexing confusion whether to apply multiplier `g’ in numerator or denominator during
conversion between S.I. system and FPS system. Needless to mention 32.2 poundals are equal to 1
pound-force. Thus, all the S.I. formulae related to force-motion are valid when units are mass in Lb.,
dimension in Foot, time in second and force in poundal; instead of Kg, Metre, Second and Newton
respectively. This is applicable to all the formulae, which are derived on the basis of general rules of
science, and which are not unit specific empirical formulae.

As stated earlier, main subject of the book is to find out belt conveyor important parameters such as
capacity, belt width, belt speed, drive power and belt tensions. However, one cannot decide any one of
these parameters without proper knowledge of complete conveyor. Therefore, the book contains design
related necessary information about various components of conveyor. More information is given on
conveyor specific components, compared to general mechanical components such as gearbox etc.

The belt conveyor rarely works in isolation. It is required to function in conjunction with directly
associated other equipment and structures. Therefore the book provides conveyor related information
about such equipment / structures. For example, the super structure for conveyors is a job for structural
engineer, however its dimensioning and arrangement is practically fixed by conveyor designer. Hence,
this book includes pertaining information about such items where certain decisions are expected from
conveyor designer.

The book is written to facilitate its use by mechanical engineer with usual qualification, who may be
familiar or not familiar to the subject. Therefore, various topics begin with this background of knowledge.
The book practically does not contain self-proclaimed assertions. It goes by engineering principles and
universally accepted practices; and creates its own reliability by transparency.

In this book, more stress is towards engineering approach and methods, which can be adopted for
solution. There could be different view about the value of input data, i.e. whether to consider value of
safety factor equal to 2.25 or 2.50 for particular case. The designer may adopt such values as per
numerous considerations (contractual requirement / standards being followed / level of safety / reliability
of available materials etc.).

All the care has been taken in this book to provide impartial presentation on the subject matter. The
book tries to make designer’s work easy. However, bulk materials and application situations are highly
varied in nature, and therefore, element of engineering judgement can not be eliminated altogether in
solution to engineering problems. The designer should decide the right solution befitting to the specific
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Preface

need with open mind and approach. As is the usual practice for such publications, the book and the
author are not party to the decision so made.

The author felt necessity to write this book considering the difficulty faced by engineers concerned with
this subject, longer induction period, conflicting stands in contract implementation and therefore the
need for rationalisation of published information. It appears that the engineering practices / tradition for
this subject have multi-center evolution with too much time lag between cross-effect and willingness to
change towards common style. This is some what comparable to varied practices / standards in
metallurgy which was not even recognised for scientific consideration till very late stage of
industrialisation, in spite of its very long time association with the human survival! The writing of this
book; on not so streamlined application engineering subject, is a difficult / hazardous task due to
mismatching data / practices. This makes the writing and recommendation process much more complex
than anticipated; and one is likely to end the efforts before completion of work. This is particularly true
for people in industrial profession. I am thankful to Dr.-Ing. R.H. Wöhlbier of Germany for his
encouragement to me in this matter, which has really helped for successful completion of this book
during long time to prepare the book. I am also thankful to Mr. Steve Harrington of Canada and
Mr. Alan Jackson of U. K. for devoting their efforts and valuable time to study and opine on this book.

I am thankful to mechanical engineers Mr. G.M. Parmar, Mr. Jagdeep, Mr. Parikshit and Mr. Uday Singh
for devoting their time and efforts in preparation of certain data and for conversion of the manuscript in
to electronic form. I also express sincere thanks to all the friends who have finally helped in publication
of this book.

The book is dedicated to all the people who have contributed for the development in this field during
course of time; and to human beings’ eternal pursuit for rationality and knowledge.

Pune: 411 021, INDIA Ishwar G. Mulani

First print : 8th November 2000 B.E. (Mechanical)
First reprint : 30th September 2002 Book Author
st
Second reprint : 1 January 2006
Third reprint with additional chapters and topics : 1st November 2012

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