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The design of any overland conveyor begins with the proper selection of an optimized conveyor routing. The best path from point A to point B is not always a straight line. In many cases the conveying system must be routed around lakes, hills, towns, environmentally sensitive areas, and other such obstacles. Snaking conveyor routes (both horizontally and vertically) are often required to traverse these obstacles.
As important, but far less obvious, is the optimum vertical path the conveyor should follow. Accurate belt stresses and tensions must be determined before the minimum curve radii can be calculated.
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What are trade offs between the conveyor design and the earthwork requirements? Is it more economical to increase the belt rating, width, or speed, in order to reduce the cut and fill requirements? Is that the best solution or is there an entirely different routing that could be used?
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One quickly realizes that the interaction between the routing, earthworks, and conveyor design is extremely critical, and these items should not be treated independently, but rather as a complete system.
Historically, this optimization process was painstaking difficult, often involving several different engineering groups. Many times each group was unaware of the requirements of the others, thereby missing opportunities to achieve an ultimate design.
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When AC-Tek began the development of the “Sidewinder” conveyor design software, the above issues were their primary concerns. The program was designed from the ground up with the ability to directly import and work with the existing 3D surface topology. The conveyor routing is overlaid on the 3D surface which directly couples the conveyor design and routing. Changes in the conveyor design automatically affect the conveyor routing, earthwork volumes, and capital costs estimations.
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AC-Tek’s experienced conveyor engineers can investigate multiple design routes quickly, and accurately to obtain an optimal balance. Additionally, Sidewinder automatically generates all relevant design conditions and material loadings. From the very start the conveyor design is treated as a single “system”.
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