Smoothly controlling the acceleration and deceleration of long conveyors reduces mechanical stress through all drive-train components and within the conveyor belt itself. This leads to longer lifetime for the belt and other drive components which increases asset availability and lowers maintenance and operating costs. Having the flexibility to control the speed of long conveyors can help reduce bottlenecks and maximize the efficiency of a material flow process, resulting in operating cost savings.
Multiple motors are often installed on long conveyors. For reliable operation and to maximize belt life, drives are needed to ensure load sharing between each motor. VLT® and VACON® drives include both Master-Master and Master-Follower control solutions. Selection of the control solution depends on the configuration of the conveyor drives on the conveyor (for example, all drives at the head end or drives at both the head and tail end). They are both easy to implement and have proven to be robust, reliable solutions for long conveyors.
For downhill conveyors, where continuous regenerative braking operation is typically required, an Active Front End (AFE) drive or alternatively a regenerative drive panel solution, using a standard 6-pulse drive with separate regenerative module, is used.
VLT and VACON drives are used extensively on many long conveyors in excess of 1 km, which are common on bulk-material-handling applications on mine sites, processing plants and port facilities such as:
ROM bin feeder conveyors
stockyards
train loadout conveyors
pipe conveyors
long overland conveyors