Materials and Design 34 (2012) 279284

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Materials and Design

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Technical Report

Optimum conditions for eld vulcanizing a fabric conveyor belt with a better capability of elongation
Chuen-Shii Chou a,, Ching-Liang Liu a,b, Chun-Sheng Tseng a
a b

Powder Technology R&D Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan Maintenance Raw Material Handling & Inplant Transportation Dept., China Steel Corporation, Kaohsiung 812, Taiwan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Using ANOM of the Taguchi method, the optimum conditions for eld vulcanizing a fabric conveyor belt with a better capability of elongation were obtained. The optimum conditions included: (1) curing time of 25 min, (2) curing pressure of 9 kg/cm2, (3) dismantling platen temperature of 90 C, and (4) forced cooling of air. Under these optimum conditions, a conrmation experiment was carried out, and the average elongation of this spliced fabric conveyor belt was 503.17%. The percentage contribution of each controllable factor within the current investigation range was also determined via ANOVA of the Taguchi method. Interestingly, of the four controllable factors the cooling method was the most inuential on the elongation capability of the vulcanized area, and its percentage contribution was 46.26%. This study validated the importance of the cooling method although most reports about vulcanizing a fabric conveyor belt gave more importance to the curing time and pressure. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 18 June 2011 Accepted 4 August 2011 Available online 11 August 2011

1. Introduction A conveyor belt is usually used to transport raw materials (such as ores, and grains) over a short or medium conveying distance. For example, in an iron-making plant, the blast furnace is called the heart of the plant while the conveyor belts are called the blood vessels of the plant. The reasons for this are that conveyor belts are simple in construction, exible in transport system conguration, and versatile in use, and that they may also be used to transport goods over a considerable distance [1]. Two types of conveyor belt (fabric belt and steel cord belt) are designed and fabricated for customers demand for bulk solids handling. Specically, the fabric conveyor belt, which has the advantages of low cost and easy maintenance, is widely used. However, in terms of industrial safety, the sudden rupture of a conveyor belt will cause the rapid fall of a conveyors counterweight (or weighting box), and this fallen object may endanger the workers. Aside from this, all fallen materials and the dust pollution need to be dealt with, and these accidental disasters will result in great loss to the company. Because the belt is a key component of the conveyor belt system [2], its reliability (or material properties) can substantially inuence the safety and performance of a conveyor belt system. Therefore, research on conveyor belt systems has attracted considerable attention.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 8 7703202x7016.
E-mail addresses: cschou@mail.npust.edu.tw (C.-S. Chou), n9832007@mail. npust.edu.tw (C.-L. Liu). 0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2011.08.009

In the past, several methods have been proposed to improve the performance and safety, to predict the behavior, or to extend the lifetime of a conveyor belt system. For example, Kozhushko and Kopnov studied the fatigue behavior of three types of fabric conveyor belt subjected to shear loading and proposed a model of fatigue strength function [3]. Huang et al. presented a method, based on measuring the tensile forcelength characteristic curve of the steel-cord belt splice, to forecast the breakage of a steel-cord belt splice [4]. Rengifo reported a splice assembly technique based on using a grooved rubber matrix for a wire reinforced conveyor belt [5]. Fourie et al. used the method of digital X-ray imaging to monitor the fabric conveyor belting [6]. Lodewijks and Owes developed a belt conveyor inspection tool based on fuzzy logic to objectify the inspection results [7]. Mazurkiewicz developed a computer system for monitoring conveyor belt joints [8] and experimentally analyzed the aging impact on the strength of the adhesive sealed joints of conveyor belts [1]. Further, Hou and Meng measured the dynamic elastic modulus, viscous damping, and rheological constants of the belt and proposed these properties as a function of the tensile loading on the belt [2]. Most interestingly, Kozhushko and Kopnov indicated that the types of failure of a fabric conveyor belt include abrasive wear of the boards and rubber covers, breakage of fabric, the divergence of joints, etc. [3]. Rengifo also reported that the splice of a fabric conveyor belt is the weakest part of a conveyor belt system [5]. The intranet database of China Steel Corporation (CSC) between January 2007 and December 2009 shows that the number of damaged fabric conveyor belts, which need to be re-spliced, is

280 Table 1 Controllable factors and their levels. Factor A B C D Description Time of curing (min) Pressure on belt (kg/cm2) Temperature of dismantling platen (C) Cooling method

C.-S. Chou et al. / Materials and Design 34 (2012) 279284

Level 1 25 7 60 Natural

Level 2 15 5 30 Water

Level 3 40 9 90 Air

Table 2 Test conditions. Time of curing (min) Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 25 25 25 15 15 15 40 40 40 Pressure on belt (kg/cm2) 7 5 9 7 5 9 7 5 9 Temperature of dismantling platen (C) 60 30 90 30 90 60 90 60 30 Cooling method Natural Water Air Air Natural Water Water Air Natural

imental costs. Using the orthogonal array specially designed for the Taguchi method, the optimum experimental conditions can be easily determined. This study considered four controllable factors, and each factor had three levels (Table 1). Therefore, an L9(34) orthogonal array was chosen, and the experimental conditions (Table 2) were obtained by combining Table 1 and the L9(34) orthogonal array. Accordingly, an analysis of the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio was needed to evaluate the experimental results. Usually, three types of S/N ratio analysis are applicable: (1) lower is better (LB), (2) nominal is best (NB), and (3) higher is better (HB). Because the target of this study was to maximize the elongation capability of the spliced area in a fabric conveyor belt, the S/N ratio with HB characteristics was required, given by
n S 1X 1 10 log N n i1 Y 2 i

! 1

where n is the number of repetitions under the same experimental conditions, and Y represents the result of measurement (i.e., Y is the elongation of the spliced area). The analysis of mean (ANOM) statistical approach was adopted herein to construct the optimal conditions. Initially, the mean of the S/N ratio of each controllable factor at a certain level must be i calculated. For example, M Level FactorI ; the mean of the S/N ratio of factor I in level i, was given by
i M Level FactorI

56. This number is second only to that of damaged fabric conveyor belts due to cutting. Therefore, improving the elongation capability of the splice in a fabric conveyor belt is worthy of continued study. Aside from these, the optimum conditions of splicing a fabric conveyor belt have seldom been investigated using the Taguchi method [9]. This fact is the main motivation behind this investigation. Moreover, an attempt to study the percentage contribution of each experimental parameter to the splicing (or vulcanizing) process has seldom been undertaken. Accordingly, in this study, the time of curing, the pressure acting on the fabric conveyor belt, the temperature of dismantling platen from the fabric conveyor belt, and the cooling method were used as the controllable factors. The optimum conditions for vulcanizing a fabric conveyor belt with a better elongation capability in the spliced area and the percentage contribution of each aforementioned experimental parameter to the vulcanizing process were determined using the Taguchi method [9].

"  # nIi Leveli 1 X S nIi j1 N FactorI

2
j

level i, and

In Eq. (2), nIi represents the number of appearances of factor I in h i S Leveli is the S/N ratio of factor I in level i, and its N FactorI
j

appearance sequence in Table 3 is the jth. By the same measure, the mean of the S/N ratios of the other factors in a certain level could be determined. Thereby, the S/N response table was obtained, and the optimal conditions were established. Finally, the conrmation experiments on vulcanizing process under these optimal conditions were carried out. In addition to ANOM, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical method was also used to analyze the inuence of each controllable factor on the process of vulcanizing a fabric conveyor belt. The percentage contribution of each factor, qF, was given by

2. Taguchi method The Taguchi method [9] has generally been adopted to optimize the design parameters [1019] because this systematic approach can signicantly minimize the overall testing time and the exper-

qF

SSF DOF F V Er 100 SST

In Eq. (3), DOFF represents the degree of freedom for each factor, which is obtained by subtracting one from the number of the level of each factor (L). The total sum of squares, SST, was given by

Table 3 The S/N ratio of each test. Test A B C D

ePA (%)
Y1 Y2 412 426 458 353 357 381 421 371 331 Y3 402 434 404 355 362 382 414 374 317 426 424 435 351 356 384 409 372 314

eSA (%)
Y4 451 445 542 472 418 584 442 527 528 Y5 443 451 570 470 455 573 541 538 443 Y6 424 443 610 590 484 497 461 533 429

1 6

P6

i1 Y i

MSD (106)

S/N

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3

1 2 3 2 3 1 3 1 2

1 2 3 3 1 2 2 3 1

426.33 437.17 503.17 431.83 405.33 466.83 448.00 452.50 393.67

5.53 5.24 4.22 5.99 6.37 5.09 5.12 5.37 7.22

52.57 52.81 53.74 52.22 51.96 52.93 52.91 52.70 51.41

Note: Y1, Y2 and Y3 represent the elongation of the rst, second and third test pieces (cut from the patched area), respectively. Y4, Y5 and Y6 represent the elongation of the rst, second and third test pieces (cut from the rest part of the spliced area), respectively. The boldface red font corresponds to the maximum value of S/N ratio among the nine tests.

C.-S. Chou et al. / Materials and Design 34 (2012) 279284

m n X X j 1 i 1

281

! Y2 i
j

SST

mnY T 2

P Pn where Y T m j 1 i1 Y i j =mn, m represents the number of experiments carried out in this study, and n represents the number of repetitions under the same experimental conditions. The factorial sum of squares, SSF, was given by

SSF

L mn X Y F Y T 2 L k1 k

where Y F k is the average value of the measurement results of a certain factor in the kth level. Additionally, the variance of error, VEr, was given by

SST V Er

D P F A

SSF 6

mn 1

3. Materials and methods 3.1. Splicing a fabric conveyor belt In this study, the fabric conveyor belt made by San Wu Rubber (SWR) Mfg. Co., Ltd., Taiwan was used. It consisted of a top styrenebutadiene-rubber (SBR) with a thickness of 6 mm, a bottom SBR with a thickness of 2 mm, and a core of polyester fabric with the strength of EP150 4. Aside from this, the total length, width, and thickness of the fabric conveyor belt used in the experiments of vulcanization were 75.0, 60.0, and 1.3 cm, respectively. The procedure of splicing the ends of two pieces of the fabric conveyor belt is as follows. (1) Before overlapping two pieces of fabric conveyor belt, for one belt, its top SBR of 475 mm in length was peeled off, and its fabric core was stripped to be a stepped surface (Fig. 1a); (2) for the other belt, its bottom SBR of 475 mm in length was peeled off, and its fabric core was stripped to be a stepped surface, too; (3) the surface of these two stripped fabric conveyor belts was grinded using a portable grinding machine and then cleaned using a cleaning uid (REMA TIP TOP R4); (4) the rubber cement (SWR A35-NR) and the tie rubber (SWR A35-NR) were used to make these two stripped fabric conveyor belts cohere (Fig. 1b); (5) two gaps with an area of 5 60 cm2 on the top and bottom of this cohered fabric conveyor belt were patched using the cover stock (SWR A49-NR/SBR) (Fig. 1b); and (6) this cohered fabric conveyor belt (Fig. 1c) was then placed in the vulcanizing equipment (Canadas Shaw-Almex Co., KD 2600 5600 ), as shown in Fig. 2, and it was vulcanized at a temperature of 140 C [20] with a preset pressure and duration (Table 2). 3.2. Measuring the elongation of a spliced fabric conveyor belt After the experiment of vulcanization, this spliced fabric conveyor belt was removed from the vulcanizing equipment by releasing the pressure acting on the belt and dismantling the platen on the belt. According to CNS K6344 [21], CNS K6343 [22], and JIS K6301 [23], the procedure of measuring the elongation of a spliced fabric conveyor belt is as follows. (1) A dumb-bell-shaped test piece with a length of 100 mm was cut from the spliced area (or patched area) of the fabric conveyor belt (Fig. 3a), and its dimensions, which are identical to those of the dumb-bell-shaped test piece of pattern No. 3 depicted in CNS K6344 [21] and JIS K6301 [23], are shown in Fig. 3b; (2) one end of this test piece was clamped to one jig of a tensile testing machine, and the other end of this test piece was clamped to the other jig of the tensile testing machine (Fig. 3c); and (3) the tensile testing machine was

Fig. 1. Schematics and Dimensions (unit: mm) of a fabric conveyor belt. (a) A stripped fabric conveyor belt with a stepped surface, (b) two patched areas (5 60 cm2) on the top and bottom of a cohered fabric conveyor belt, and (c) a cohered belt made by splicing the ends of two pieces of the fabric conveyor belt.

turned on, this test piece was pulled with a speed of 500 mm/ min, and the elongation was registered before this test piece was ruptured (Table 3). In this study, three test pieces were cut from the patched area of the fabric conveyor belt, and three test pieces were cut from the rest part of the spliced area of the fabric conveyor belt (Fig. 3a). These six test pieces were used for measuring the elongation of a spliced fabric conveyor belt, and the measured values are listed in Table 3. The elongation of a dumb-bell-shaped test piece was determined by [21,23]

LS L0 L0

In Eq. (7), L0 and LS represent the original length of the parallel section of dumb-bell (20 mm) and the stretched length of the parallel section of dumb-bell before this test piece is ruptured, respectively.

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C.-S. Chou et al. / Materials and Design 34 (2012) 279284 Table 4 S/N ratio response table. Factor/Level
S Lev el N Factor j

v el M Le Factor

j=1 A/1 A/2 A/3 B/1 B/2 B/3 C/1 C/2 C/3 D/1 D/2 D/3 52.57 52.22 52.91 52.57 52.81 53.74 52.57 52.81 53.74 5257 52.81 53.74

j=2 52.81 51.96 52.70 52.22 51.96 52.93 52.93 52.22 51.96 51.96 52.93 52.22

j=3 53.74 52.93 51.41 52.91 52.70 51.41 52.70 51.41 52.91 51.41 52.91 52.70 53.04 52.37 52.34 52.57 52.49 52.70 52.74 52.15 52.87 51.98 52.88 52.89

Fig. 2. Schematic of a vulcanizing equipment.

Note: The boldface font corresponds to the maximum value of the mean of the S/N ratios of a certain factor among the three levels.

Fig. 3. Schematic of the spliced fabric conveyor belt (a), the dimension of a test piece with a dumb-bell shape (unit: mm) (b), schematic of a tensile testing machine clamping a test piece (c).

4. Results and discussion 4.1. Optimum conditions The elongations of the spliced and patched areas in a fabric conveyor belt prepared in Tests 19 were measured according to the method, as shown in Section 3.2, and their values were presented in Table 3. Substituting the number of experimental repetitions and results of the measurement (i.e., the elongations of the spliced and patched areas) into Eq. (1), the S/N ratio of each test condition was determined (Table 3). The boldface red font in Table 3 refers to the maximum value of S/N ratio among the nine tests. Subsequently, the values of the S/N ratio were substituted into Eq. (2) and the mean of the S/N ratios of a certain factor in the ith level, M Level Factor ; was obtained (Table 4). In Table 4, the boldface red font refers to the maximum value of the mean of the S/N ratios of a certain factor among three levels, and thus it indicates one of the optimum conditions for vulcanizing a fabric conveyor belt. From Table 4, the optimum conditions of splicing (or vulcanizing) a fabric conveyor belt with a better capability of elongation are as follows. (1) The time of curing is 25 min; (2) the pressure acting on the fabric conveyor belt is 9 kg/cm2; (3) the temperature of disman-

tling platen from the fabric conveyor belt is 90 C; and (4) the cooling method is air cooling. The aforementioned optimum conditions are identical to the test conditions in Test 3. Therefore, the conrmation experiment was carried out according to the aforementioned optimum conditions with the exception of the cooling method (Test 10 in Table 5), the elongations of the spliced and patched areas were registered, and the S/N ratio was calculated (Table 5). The value of the S/N ratio in Test 10 (53.17) was slightly smaller than that under the optimum conditions (53.74), but the average elongation under optimum conditions (503.17%) substantially exceeded that in Test 10 (457.84%), as shown in Table 5. This result is probably attributed to the fact that for a xed curing time, a xed temperature of dismantling platen, and a xed pressure acting on the fabric conveyor belt, the forced cooling (such as air cooling) can more homogeneously cool the vulcanized fabric conveyor belt, compared with the natural cooling. Nozu et al. experimentally and numerically studied the cure process of a solid rubber (such as SBR), and they indicated that the cure reaction was clearly enhanced after the heat addition to the rubber had been removed [24]. Therefore, a faster cooling through forced air may result in higher elongation values compared with the natural cooling. Interestingly, this result is very exciting due to the fact that under a normal operation, if the vulcanized area has a higher average elongation, this fabric conveyor belt may have a longer lifetime. The chemical process of vulcanization is a type of cross-linking initiated by heat or pressure [25]. During the vulcanization, some of the CH bonds of one polymer chain of the SBR are replaced by chains of sulfur atoms that link with another polymer chain. The cross-link can be a covalent bond or an ionic bond. If there are more cross-links with a higher number of sulfur atoms in the vulcanized area, this vulcanized fabric conveyor belt may have good dynamic properties, which are important for exible movements of the rubber [25]. Aside from this, Schmidgall indicated that because the ends of a conveyor belt must be joined together to create a continuous belt, operators must use the utmost care when employing either of two common splicing methods (i.e., vulcanizing and mechanical fasteners), and for the permanent splicing of a conveyor belt, vulcanizing is most often the best choice [26]. Therefore, the optimum conditions of splicing a fabric conveyor belt presented herein is the very practical and valuable information for on-site vulcanization of a fabric conveyor belt.

4.2. Percentage of contribution Initially, Y F k (the average value of the measurement results of a certain factor in the kth level) was obtained from Yi in Table 3, and

C.-S. Chou et al. / Materials and Design 34 (2012) 279284 Table 5 S/N ratios in Test 3 (i.e. optimum) and Test 10. A B C D

283

ePA (%)
Y1 Y2 458 433 Y3 404 423 435 447

eSA (%)
Y4 542 459 Y5 570 479 Y6 610 506

1 6

P6

i1 Y i

MSD (106)

S/N

Test 3 Test 10

1 1

3 3

3 3

3 1

503.17 457.84

4.22 4.82

53.74 53.17

Table 6 B C D YA k , Y k , Y k and Y k . YA k Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 455.56 434.67 431.39 YB k 435.39 431.67 454.56 YC k 448.56 420.89 452.17 YD k 408.44 450.67 462.50

Table 7 SSF and qF. Factor A B C D SSF 0.94 0.06 0.89 1.63

qF (%)
26.64 1.84 25.26 46.26

they are listed in Table 6. By substituting Y F k and Y T 440:54% into Eq. (5), the factorial sum of squares, SSF, for each factor was calculated individually, and they are listed in Table 7. Using Eq. (4), the total sum of squares, SST, was determined. By substituting SSF and SST = 3.52 in Eq. (6), the variance of error, VEr, was obtained. Finally, by the substitution of SSF, SST = 3.52, VEr = 0.03, and DOFF = 2 in Eq. (3), the percentage contribution of each factor, qF, was determined sequentially; and these values are presented in Table 7. At a xed vulcanizing temperature of 140 C the rank order of the percentage contributions of each factor was as follows: (1) the cooling method (46.26%), (2) the time of curing (26.64%), (3) the temperature of dismantling platen from the fabric conveyor belt (25.26%), and (4) the pressure acting on the fabric conveyor belt (1.84%). The cooling method was the most inuential factor on the elongation of the spliced fabric conveyor belt among the four controllable factors. Aside from this, the average S/N ratios of the cooling method in D1 (natural cooling), D2 (water cooling), and D3 (air cooling) were 51.98, 52.88, and 52.89, respectively (Table 4). This result indicated that during the vulcanization the forced cooling was better than the natural cooling, and the air cooling was slightly better than the water cooling because the thermal conductivity of air (0.024 W/m C) is signicantly smaller than that of water (0.58 W/m C). Nozu et al. also indicated that the cooling process played an important role in the cure process, and the heating time might be reduced by considering the precise considerations for the cooling mechanism [24]. The curing time was the second inuential factor on the elongation of the spliced fabric conveyor belt among the four controllable factors, and its percentage contribution was 26.64%. Aside from this, the average S/N ratios of the curing time in A1 (25 min), A2 (15 min), and A3 (40 min) were 53.04, 52.37, and 52.34, respectively (Table 4). Karaa gac et al. indicated three periods of curing rubber, which included: (1) induction, (2) curing, and (3) over-cure [27]. They also indicated that in the third period the reversion, equilibrium, or marching cure behaviors might occur. This may be used to explain that the average S/N ratio of A3 (52.34) was the smallest among the three levels of the controllable factor A (i.e., curing time). Because the reversion usually has an undesirable effect on the product quality, to optimize the curing process becomes necessary [27,28]. The temperature of dismantling platen was the third inuential factor on the elongation of the spliced fabric conveyor belt among the four controllable factors, and its percentage contribution was 25.26%. Aside from this, the average S/N ratios of the temperature of dismantling platen in C1 (60 C), C2 (30 C), and C3 (90 C) were 52.74, 52.15, and 52.87, respectively (Table 4). A lower temperature of dismantling platen corresponds to a longer waiting period, under which the reversion may occur in the spliced fabric conveyor

belt. Therefore, as the temperature of dismantling platen increased from 30 to 90 C the average S/N ratio increased from 52.15 to 52.87. Aside from this, Bando indicated that the minimum vulcanizing time for a fabric conveyor belt was 15 min, and the vulcanizing time was linearly proportional to the thickness of a fabric conveyor belt [20]. Schmidgall also indicated that for a smooth surface across the joint, a substantial curing time was generally required [26]. Moreover, the pressure acting on the fabric conveyor belt was the least inuential factor on the elongation of the spliced area among the four controllable factors because the pressure used herein followed the suggestion that the hydraulic pressure acting on the fabric conveyor belt during vulcanization should range from 7 to 10 kg/cm2 [20].

5. Conclusion Using the vulcanizing method and the analysis of mean (ANOM) of the Taguchi method, this investigation studied the optimum conditions of splicing (or vulcanizing) a fabric conveyor belt with a better capability of elongation, and the average elongation of this spliced fabric conveyor belt reached 503.17%. Moreover, the percentage contribution of each controllable factor to splice (or vulcanize) a fabric conveyor belt was determined by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the Taguchi method, and the most inuential factor was the cooling method whose percentage contribution was 46.26%. Most importantly, this study supports the application of a simple and traditional vulcanizing method to effectively splice a fabric conveyor belt with a better capability of elongation on-site, and it may help to substantially reduce the manufacturing cost. Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank San Wu Rubber (SWR) Mfg. Co., Ltd., Taiwan for assisting this research. Reference
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