ABSTRACT The conveyer system is a life line for any bulk material handling industries. i.

e steel Plant, Power Plant, Coal, Iron and other mining industries. Conveyer system of a steel plant is just like veins of human body. As in human body, vein supplies blood to different parts of organ of human body to keep it alive, healthy, active and energetic. And similarly conveyer systems supplies different type of required raw material to its equipment for making the valuable steel. So it is very important that conveyer system should perform trouble free and consistently. It was observed that the demand of steel product is extensively increased and to meet the demand every one trying to take out the best out put from existing infrastructure. This has resulted a very high wear and abrasion failure of conveyer components (i.e. idler, pulleys). It was observed that especially for sinter, coke and slag area which very abrasive in nature. The life of Idler is very less (i.e. 20 to 30 days). Which resulted a frequently break down of plant. This paper gives the details of development of Hybrid Idler which has given the life 9 to 10 times more than conventional idler and helped the conveyer system to supply the required raw material to concerned equipment for make the steel consistently. KEYWORDS JCR-1000CERO ZIP Polymer, Abrasion Loss, Compressive Strength, Tensile Strength, Hardness, Casting, Troughing Idler, Return Idler, Fit it Forget It.

INTRODUCTION The conveyer belt system are consist of number of rotating points and fixed points (i.e. Drive Pulley, Tail Pulley, Bend Pulleys, Sub Pulleys take-up Pulleys and supported number of Troughing Idler, Return idlers, short post stringers, tail frame, head frame, main structure and many other parts of conveyer belt. Depending its capacity the idler rollers may be either straight or segmented and tilted. As per the design based on IS11592 and Idlers as per the IS-8598well known in the prior art. The generally the conveyer belts are having two side. (i) Carrying side and (ii) NonCarrying side. During the operations. The troughing Idlers always in contact with Noncarrying side of Belt and Return idler are always in contact with carrying side of the conveyer belt. The Fig no. 1 & 1A will give the fair idea of carrying side and non-carrying side and general arrangement of Conveyer belt. When the material (Coke, Iron ore, Sinters lime stone, slag, coal, clinker, Gypsum, baramaites etc.) which is very abrasive in nature. Are loaded at tail end side. Conveyor belt carrying it till the discharge end side is supported from underneath by troughing idlers roller. i.e. Troughing rollers came into contact with non-carrying side of conveyer belt. After discharge of material the return rollers came in contact with carrying side of the conveyer belt. Due to very abrasive and moisture absorbing in nature the fine dust stick on the surface of Carrying side and significantly reduces the life of return idlers rollers. Abrasive and sticky in nature it also reduces the life of others idler roller significantly. Due to very frequently conveyer belt gets breakdown and production gets hampered our industries have to take a very frequent preventive maintenance schedule to avoid the breakdown which is very costly and tedious the change of worm-out rollers in conveyer belt and replace with new roller are very time consuming. Loss of production and tedious The prior art of idler roller are made of CRW steel and have a wear life of approximately two weeks to three months depending on the environment in which they are used. In the most abrasive environment such as slag and coke of steel industries and Clinker of cement industries. Life approximately 2-3 weeks and required approximately four hours for replacing the warm out idler rollers and replace with new one. It is therefore an object of the present innovation to manufacture an idler rollers with very high abrasive material to achieve the longer life without charging the existing arrangement of prior art of conveyer belts.

Fig. No. - 1

Fig. No. 1A

STANDARDS Generally the idlers have been designed as per IS-8598/ISO-1537/IPSS-2-03-004-85. LUBRICATION During assembly of all type of idler rollers has been lubricated with Hi-Lithium based grease. SHAFT The shaft of Idlers made from bright bar which generally follow the standard IS9550. The shafts are ground on a centre-less grinding machine to get the finishing of a very high degree throughout the length. SEALING Idlers have been manufactured with designed, multilabyrinth, non-contacting type seals which keep dust, moisture and dirt away from the bearing. Waterproof weather caps at the roller end avoid water entering alongside the shaft. A specially designed back-seal prevents grease from entering the roller. BEARING HOUSING Bearing Housing has been made with good quality steel. Housings are welded to both ends of the tube simultaneously by an automatic welding machine forming a mono-black design to ensure rigidity, lower rotating weight and minimum out of-roundness. TUBE Generally the idlers have been designed as per ERW tubes as per IS-9295. Fig No. 2 will give the clear idea of parts of the Idler

Fig. No. 2

FAILURE OF IDLERS IN CONVEYER SYSTEM From the fig nos.-3 it is clear that the failure of idlers is due to wearing out of ERW tube of idler due to very high wear & abrasion and resulting frequent breakdown and consumption of idler is very high and most important the sharp edges of idlers pipes which cuts the conveyer belt also.

DAMAGE IDLER IN SINTER & SLAG CIRCUIT [APPROX LIFE 20-25 DAYS] Fig No.-3 RESULT AND DEVELOPMENT To counter the very high wear and abrasion of idler pipe surface. A special type of Hybrid Idler coated with special type of Polymer (JCR-1000CERO ZIP) was developed. JCR-1000 CERO ZIP is a very unique blend combination of (Al2O3 -90 to 92%) high alumina Ceramic Powder with Polymer and put in the service at most critical place in SP #2. Conveyer belt No.-503,504 and 508. On dated 22-05-2007. A very exiting result has been found. The hybrid idler has given the life of 240 to 250 days where as conventional idlers life was 20 to 25 days.

HYBRID IDLER FOR CONVEYER BELT Fig No.-5

DETAILS OF HYBRID IDLER

TUBE:- ERW, YST- 210, IS:9295 SOFT:- MS BRIGHT BAR(UNIFORM DIA) BEARING:-SINGLE ROW DEEP GROOVE BALL BRG.-6205/6206. MAKE:-SKF BEARING LIFE:-30,000 HRS (8-10 LIFE) PULLEY HEAD:-PRESSED STEEL PULLEY HEAD HR SHEET IS:-1079. 3.15 THK LUBRICATION: - GREASE PACKED AND SEALED FOR LIFE. INTERNAL CONSTRUCTION:-AS PER ALL ROLLS ARE INTERCHANGEABLE IDLER ARE DROP IN TYPE AND ROLLS CAN BE REMOVE WITHOUT DISMANTLING THE BRACKETS FROM CONVEYOR STRUCTURE ALL ROLLER SHALL BE DUST PROOF, WATER PROOF AND WEATHER PROOF. D INDICATED THE DIA OF THE IDLER TUBE.

PHYSICAL PROPERTY OF JCR1000 CERO ZIP POLYMER

HARDNESS TENSILE STRENGTH/ PSI (MPA) COMPRESSION SET (22 HR. @ 70I C) CURED SPECIFIC GRAVITY G/cm3 ABRASION LOSS HEAT RESISTANCE 805 SHORE A 35 MPA 28 MPA / cm2 1.08 45gm mm3 80-85C

RETURN IDLER

TROUGHING IDLER

Belt Width (mm) B.W. 800 1000 1200 1400

Roller Dia (mm) D 139.7 139.7 139.7 139.7

A (mm)

950 1150 1400 1600

315 380 465 530

CONVENTIONAL IDLER Fig No.-6

HYBRID IDLER [COATED WITH JCR 1000 CERO-ZIP] Fig No.-7

IDLERS PUT IN SERVICE ON MAY-07 AND 5 MONTHS ALREADY OVER AND STILL IT IS IN SERVICE. Fig No.-7

CONCLUSION Endless conveyer belt system supported by pulleys and idler is the best well known prior art and it is used world wide. But due to very fast wearing out of idlers roller causes the down time and costly maintenance affaires to the system and in term increase in production cost. So we have to pay the attention to improve the life of idlers rollers without change the well known prior art. According to one aspect of the innovation, there is provide idlers roller with coating of JCT-100CERO ZIP POLYMER which is very high abrasion resistance properties and very low co- efficient of friction. It is a unique combination of Polymer and Ceramic. It is coated on the Idler by casting material as integral part of Idler to achieve the long life without change the prior art and reduce down time with MOTTO to Fit it forget it. At least from 1st planned shut down to 2nd down planned shut down for transporting the bulk material from one place to another place.