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Down in the
Mines . . . New Coal Conveyor Installations
Overview
Furmanite was recently
hired to perform in situ machining on the new construction of a coal conveyor
belt system. Upon installation of the newly fabricated coal conveyor it
was discovered that two bearing pedestal pads, measuring 56" x 24"
and situated on a twenty degree angle, were out of tolerance by .500" to
each other. This misalignment skewed the belt pillow block bearing,
causing the conveyor belt to walk.
A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. Bulk
material handling conveyor systems are used to transport large volumes of
resources, such as grain, salt, ore, sand, overburden, ore and this instance,
coal. The world's longest belt conveyor system, located in the
Western Sahara, is sixty-one miles long, running from the Moroccan
phosphate mines of Bu Craa to the coast south of the
Moroccan city of El-Aaiun.
Milling Machine Set to Cut
Solution and Implementation
Inspection of the newly fabricated coal conveyor system revealed
that the pads were distorted and out of level to each other by .500" at
the lowest recorded indication. Furmanite mobilized men and machines
within hours after receiving the customer's call. A straight edge and master
level were utilized to maintain .002" per foot level between the two
bearing pedestal pads being machined. The three access milling machine was set
using an angularity gauge protractor to replicate the twenty degree common
slope of the two bearing pedestals.
Machining Completed Ready
for Bearing Blocks
Results
Both pads were machined to
within .010" level and on same plane to each other, with the standard
level plane tolerance of .002" per foot maintained. The maximum
metal removed from the bearing pedestal faces was 0.500", the completed
surface finish on both bearing pedestals was 125 RMS, and the per-foot flatness
tolerance was restored to 0.002". The project was completed working around
the clock in a total of six (6) - twelve (12) hour shifts. Furmanite's men and
machines arrived on site fourteen hours after the initial callout, five hours
of which was transportation time, for a net total call-out-to-mobilization
response time of nine hours. The customer was extremely pleased with the
quality of Furmanite's work, the efficiency in which it was executed, and the
speed to arrival.
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