Limestone transport in Ragland (Alabama):

Limestone transport in Ragland (Alabama):
Beumer conveyor belts in use for over 20 years

Beckum / Ragland, 08/18/2007. The development and solution of complex transport tasks has been among the core competencies of the internationally active specialists for pioneering logistics installations Beumer Maschinenfabrik since it was founded in 1935. Here fully matured solutions ensure smooth procedures. The best example of this is a series of three conveyors: As far back as 1985 the Beumer Group developed and installed the conveyor infrastructure for National Cement
Company in Ragland, Alabama.

The task was to move limestone from a quarry to the plant. The core of the approximately four kilometers long track is a curving troughed belt conveyor. It covers a stretch of 3.4 kilometers overland. The conveyor has a width of 800 mm with a speed of 2.9 meters/sec. With that the belt conveyor moves 750 tons per hour from the quarry to the plant, day in and day out. The conveyors have for more than 20 years replaced heavy trucks that previously had to travel twice the distance over gravel and dirt roads. This not only entailed high costs with operational investments including maintenance of the trucks but even polluted the environment with noise and dust emissions.

Precise calculations ensure adequacy in practice
In order to minimize the costs of moving earth for the roads traveled BEUMER designed the track curve of the belt conveyor with four horizontal curves. With that more than 70 percent of the entire stretch could be spanned. Engineers at Beumer mastered the precise calculation of the distance of the various stations for the belt tensioning pullesys for troughed conveyor systems with flying colors. The challenge consisted of a detailed calculation of all theoretically and practically occurring loading and operating conditions taking every possible change of weather into account.

Sophisticated drive technologyBeumer developed the curving troughed belt conveyor with three drive units at the conveyor head, each with a motor, a liquid coupling and gears. The tension drum and the gravity tensioning station are likewise located at the head and the front area of the conveyor. The materials are fed in with a vibrating feeder.
To ensure that the belt only comes into contact with the material on one side the belt is returned at both ends of the system (belt returning stations). This ensures clean and smooth operation of the system.
Thanks to the excellent maintenance program the troughed belt conveyor is still operating with its original conveyor. And has been for 20 years!