The use of industrial metrotomography in the field of maintenance and reliability of rubber-textile conveyor belts in closed continuous transport systems

With increasing environmental awareness of the public as well as international and national laws on emission control it becomes more and more difficult to operate large industrial plants, particularly near residential areas. In the specific case of bulk materials handling in coal power stations, cement plants and steel works, understandable demands with respect to complying with the limits of dust, odour and, in particular, noise emissions require a modern, environmentally friendly design based on the use of very low-noise plants. Closed transport systems are more and more widely applied in various bulk solids handling businesses. This results from the unique character of these systems, where material is fully enclosed by belt [8]. The use of a closed conveyor for transportation of bulk material gained huge popularity abroad over the past years. The closed conveyor is a modern way of transporting bulk materials [7]. The popularity of the enclosed conveyors lies in their eco-friendliness and cost-effectiveness which means low labour and operating costs [1].The best known representatives of closed transport systems are tubular conveyor belts. In the 1970s Japan Pipe Conveyor Co. Ltd. developed a pipe or tubular belt conveyor which was first installed in 1979 [6]. The problem of tubular belt conveyors has been examined in many research projects, one aspect of this research being traffic routes. Kulagin [9] deals with bending radius of the tubular conveyor in the horizontal plane by computer modelling. Another significant field of research concerning tubular conveyor belts is the behaviour of a transporting belt. Baburski [3] analyses the mechanical properties of conveyor belts at three main stages of production. In his other research, he investigated the effect of pipe conveyor belt pressure on the rollers on its circuit [4]. This type of research requires knowledge Gabriel FEDORKO Vieroslav MOLNAR Miroslav DOVICA Nikoleta HUSAKOVA Jan KRAĽ jr. Miroslaw FERDYNUS