Dunlop Enerka Belting of Farington, Britain, has supplied what is claimed to be Europe's longest conveyor belt to RJB Mining plc's Selby mine complex in North Yorkshire. The new belt has replaced an older belt supplied by DEB (then BTR Belting Ltd) in 1981.
The Selby conveyor system has more than 25km of belting and links five pit faces with a central lifting point in Gascoigne Wood. DEB said the fire-resistant ST7000SFR belt was 1300mm wide and 28mm thick, with a tensile strength rating of 7000 N/mm.
The belt is carrying 3200 tonnes of coal per hour at speeds up to 8.4m per second, driven by an electric motor with rated power of 10,100kW.
DEB said it also supplied its computer-controlled EyeQ condition monitoring system, which monitored the condition of the belt and detected the occurrence of any damage. The continuous monitoring made it possible to take early remedial action should a potential trouble-spot be identified, the supplier said.
DEB, Dunlop-Enerka bv of Drachten, the Netherlands, and Belgium's Dunlop-Enerka SA form the Dunlop Belting Group, in turn part of Unipoly Enerka. Australia's Apex Belting and US-based Georgia Duck are also part of Luxembourg-headquartered Unipoly Enerka.
