Beyond Accidents: A Back-Analysis on Conveyor Belt Injury for a Better Design for Maintenance Operations

Abstract

The conveyor belt represents one of the most commonly used methods of transporting bulk materials today. As highlighted multiple times in research, the moving parts are a critical issue causing accidents and injuries and several of these are strictly related to the opportunity to enter in working zones during maintenance activities, considered high-risk activity due to the nature of the job. For these reasons, maintenance operations have to be carefully planned during the design phase, with the adoption of appropriate safety measures for the maintenance crew and other people present in the area. On the other hand, preventative measures have to be put in action for maintenance operations and daily work. Analysing the accident reports related to the crushing and milling plants obtained from the several data bases and identifying with a Cause-Consequences analysis the root causes of an injury occurred in an Italian quarry, the paper underlines critical issues of the conveyor belts during maintenance operations, identifies common errors in the system management that affect the workers' safety and proposes an approach in order to improve the maintainability and the safety during the design phase.

Behind Subcontractor Risk: A Multiple Case Study Analysis of Mining and Natural Resources Fatalities

“…It employs a multiple case study-based methodology, which is known to answer the 'how' and 'why' questions [38]. Accident reports have previously been used as case studies to identify root causes [39,40]. It presents and analyses a series of case studies, where each case is a mining-related subcontractor fatality in Queensland, Australia, between 2004 and 2014.…”

Coal Flowability Control on Preventing Spillage on Conveyor Belt Through Modeling and Simulation for Improving its Performance

“…The influence of the coal flowability on the belt greatly determines the smooth loading onto the receiving belt conveyor. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is a reliable and powerful tool to study and predict the flow of particles [16][17][18][19]. A tool that is simulated is the gate for patterning the coal in the settling zone before outgoing to the belt.…”

Development of a framework for safety performance measurement of belt conveyor systems

“…A design approach that facilitates maintenance activities such as greasing, adjustment, lubricating, temperature and vibration monitoring, cleaning, un-jamming, un-clogging, etc. performed away from the danger zone with minimum interruption of the safeguard and protective measures will be always appreciated (Martinetti et al , 2017). Additionally, there should be a lightning protection system for the belt conveyor system to prevent electric hazards.…”

“…Since maintenance needs a cohesive involvement of engineering, managerial and administrative sections of the organization, there should be diligent planning and scheduling of maintenance activities of belt conveyors. Maintenance activities such as cleaning of the conveyor, greasing at bearings, changing of lubricating oil in gearbox, inspection/examination, repair and replacement of the belt, roller, drum, bearings, electric cable and the mounting point must be adhering to the maintenance plan and schedule (Martinetti et al , 2017). In addition to these, there should be enough stock of spares for replaceable components which will help to reduce the plant downtime during breakdowns.…”

“…According to a study conducted by Chinniah (2015), nip joints that were unguarded between rollers and moving belts in conveyors were responsible for most of the safety incidents. Martinetti et al (2017) described types of conveyor belt safety guards that are fixed guards (surrounding fixed guard, barrier guards, fixed in-running nip guards), interlocked guard and interlocked guard with guard locking. Fixed guards completely or partially surround the danger zone.…”