Konferencja: ISPEM 2023 – Intelligent Systems in Production Engineering and Maintenance III
Leszek Jurdziak, Ryszard Błażej, Agata Kirjanów-Błażej, Aleksandra Rzeszowska
Since the 1980s, brown coal mines in Poland have regularly refurbished belts to reduce the purchase of new belts. The importance of belt refurbishment has increased due to rising prices for new belts and longer delivery times. The cost of refurbishment is less than half the price of a new belt, and the mine can continue operating at a nearby remanufacturing facility. Until recently, miners made decisions to remove belts based on the known lifespan of the belt and visual assessment during regular inspections. Currently, a magnetic diagnostic system is being implemented in one of the mines, allowing for a reliable evaluation of the condition of the core with steel cords. It detects changes in the magnetic field around damage to the magnetized cables in the belt core that indicate damage. The program developed for each section determines numerous parameters describing the condition of the belt, such as the number of defects, the density of defects per linear meter or square meter of the belt, the total defects area of the belt section, and the area of the defects per linear or square meter of the belt. The paper compares various metrics of conveyor belt condition, including those based on age (calendar working time and service life as a percentage of expected operating time) and the steel cord belt condition determined by the DiagBelt system (damage density and damage area per 1 m of belt). The research has found that the objective results of measurements of the belt condition provided by the magnetic diagnostic system have a stronger correlation than the indirect metrics based on the age of the belt.