Booster Drive Conveyors
Booster Drive Conveyors allow power to be added at specific locations within the conveyor system as the tunnel advances, allowing belt tension to be kept to a minimum. In a tunnel with many curves, the location of the booster drives is critical since the location directly impacts the maximum tension developed in the belt. Commonly uses proprietary methods to calculate the belt tension when designing multiple drive conveyor systems, methods based on years of experience and data from previous jobs. Booster drives are typically installed on the loaded side of the belt (tripper drives), but may also be required on the return side of the belt in longer tunnels.
Design
A control system for a booster drive conveyors having one or more booster belts spaced at intervals along a Conveyor Belts with the upper, driving run of each booster belt frictionally engaging the underside of the conveyor belt carrying run. Each belt has a driving pulley connected to a driving unit including one or more electric motors, engageable and disengageable fluid couplings, and a gear box. The conveyor is for heavy duty service, in long lengths of several miles. There is an electrical control assembly for each drum or pulley driving unit. These automatically start the motors in sequence while the couplings are disengaged, each being started in response to a signal from a previously started motor that it has reached running speed. An electrical loop interconnects all the control assemblies and contains relays which, when the loop is energized to actuate the relays, cause the fluid couplings to engage. The electrical loop is conditioned responsive to a running condition.