MECHANICAL HANDLING CONVEYOR

Nur Sabrina Nor Jaeman, Mohamad Aznan Mahmud, Siti Nur Aida Damanhuri, Siti Nur Aisyah Mohamad Othman,
Siti Nur Amalina Mohd Sabli.
Department of Biology and Agricultural Engineering, University Putra Malaysia.
Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT
Mechanical handling conveyor is a system used for the transportation of material from one
location to another. In agricultural and food process engineering field, the most commonly use is
belt conveyor. This is because belt conveyor has high load carrying capacity, large length of
conveying path, simple design, easy maintenance and high reliability of operation. This paper
provides on the belt conveyor operation and how to calculate the performance of the belt
conveyor. There are a few things being measured and calculated such as the peripheral force,
material discharge rate, material efficiency, the pre-tensioning and cord check. Belt conveyor
used is made by rubber with drive power of 1.5kW, while the experimented materials are mung
beanss weighed around 200g. The mung beanss were released at one end of the conveyor and the
total mung beans that equipped the conveyor are weighed again as the output. The time taken for
the first beans to reach the end of the conveyor is also measured. The experiment involved
different frequency usage.
Keywords: mechanical; handling; conveyor; belt; performance; agriculture; food process;
efficiency; frequency; mung beans.

1. INTRODUCTION
Mechanical handling conveyor is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that aids in
transporting materials especially the bulky and heavy one from a location to another location.
Conveyor systems allow quick and efficient transportation for a wide variety of materials, which
make them very popular in the material handling and packaging industries. Mechanical
conveyors can include various types such as bucket conveyor, belt conveyor, chain conveyor and

etc. The most common conveyor used in agricultural and food processing engineering are belt
conveyor, bucket conveyor and pneumatic conveyor.[1]
As for the belt conveyor, it is either flat or troughed and are often used for transporting materials
over long distances. Flat conveyors are usually used to move bulky packages or boxed goods,
and on the other hand, troughed conveyors usually transport loose items such as aggregates or
solid fuel. Belt conveyors are generally consisting of a metal frame with rollers at either end of a
flat metal bed. The belt is looped around each of the rollers and when one of the rollers is
powered (by an electrical motor). The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the
unpowered pulley is called the idler pulley. A conveyer belt can be a slide and be controlled by
the force of gravity.
There are a few parameters that that can be used to check on the performance of the belt
conveyor such as the peripheral force, material discharge rate, and material efficiency.[2] The
objectives of this experiment are to study the operation of belt conveyors by the mean of
measuring the parameters involved.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1. Apparatus
The apparatus that have been used in this experiment are conveyor machine set,
measuring tape, tachometer, balance and stopwatch.
2.2. Methods
Firstly, a 200g of the mung beans is weighed by using weighing scale. The sprocket pitch
diameter, belt width and belt length of conveyor machine is measured and the data is
recorded. Then, the conveyor machine set is turned on with 20Hz of frequency. After a
few minutes, the speed of conveyor machine is measured in revolution per minutes (rpm)
by using tachometer and the data is recorded. Next, the mung beans is placed at the
starting point of conveyor machine and released at the same speed. The time taken is
recorded when the mung beans arrived at the end point of conveyor machine. Lastly, the

output weight of mung beans is weighed and the data is recorded. The same steps are
repeated for 30Hz, 40Hz and 50Hz of frequency.

3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Once of the primary elements in understanding the reactions that take place in a flat belt
drive, as well as being a crucial factor in the calculation of the tensile forces therein, is the
peripheral force. For the calculation of the peripheral force (Fu), if the power to be transmitted
(P in kW) is known:

If the peripheral force (Fu) is known, the tensile force occurring within the belt can be
calculated for conveyor applications.

When the belt is operating there will be an elongation proportional to max traction load. It
can be calculated by:

By this experiment, the material efficiency shows are from the input and output material,
which can be calculated material efficiency using:

According to the result in Table 1, the material efficiency obtained at the end of the
experiment shows that the valid result since the average percentage in the range of 75% 90%. For conveyor speed 259.3 rpm at 20 Hz of frequency, the material efficiency is 83%.
While material efficiency 82.3% when the speed at 397 rpm. When the conveyor speed
increase to 525.4 rpm for 40Hz the material efficiency drops to 79.35%. There is no a huge
difference in the material efficiency. Since there is an increase in speed, the material
efficiency decreases. This is due to the value of the output of mung beans obtained was
slightly drop from the input which is 0.2 kg. For the frequency of 50Hz, the speed of
conveyor increases to 653.7 rpm. The material efficiency also increases to 87.9%. This is due
to the error in the experiment where the container used to collect mung beans at the end of the

conveyor has been replaced with other container that increases in width. So, the losses can be
reduced, but should the same container be used until the end of the experiment.
Table 1: values obtained from the experiment
Frequency, Hz Peripheral

force, Material discharge rate, g/s

N
20 Hz
30 Hz
40 Hz
50 Hz

Material efficiency,
%

736.60 N
481.11 N
363.53 N
292.18 N

26.73 g/s
42.21 g/s
52.03 g/s
68.14 g/s

83.00 %
82.30 %
79.35 %
87.90 %

Based on the conveyor speed and the material efficiency result, it shows an increasing value
as shown in Figure 1. Theoretically, the graph should show decreasing value, since the speed
of conveyor will affect the material efficiency.

Figure 1: graph of conveyor speed against material efficiency.

Based on the results, the error occur due to the experimental error include human
error, systematic error and random error or error caused by environmental conditions or other
unpredictable factors. Other than that, the machine used also a little bit old where some
defects were detected such as the conveyor belt taking a little longer to stop making the
outcome of the experiment to be affected. Other than that, there were some mung bean that
stuck at the side of the belting conveyor that reduce the output of the conveyor. Tus, the
experiment design and apparatus should be performing at its optimum condition so that the
experiment

could

seeks

most accurate data possible.

4. CONCLUSION

to

minimize

experimental

error,

in order to produce the

Belting conveyer is one of the simplest conveyer in transporting the bulk materials but not
very suitable for the grains which is in granular size. This is because of the loss during the
transportation of the grains looks higher. However, that loss can be overcome with
improvement on the belt conveyer because from the experiment, the grains loss only to the
side of conveyer. Besides that, the experiment shows that higher speed of belt conveyer
giving better result since the loss is reducing. So, with improvement, this conveyer could give
better results.

5. REFERENCES
[1] CONTINENTAL BELTING-BELTING FOR AGRO INDUSTRY. (13 3, 2016). Retrieved
from www.conveyorbeltworld.com: http://www.conveyorbeltworld.com/belting-agroindustry.html
[2] Ananth, K. N., Rakesh, V., & Visweswarao, P. K. (20 4, 2011). DESIGN AND
SELECTING THE PROPER CONVEYOR-BELT. Retrieved from
www.technicaljournalsonline.com: http://www.technicaljournalsonline.com/ijeat/VOL
%20IV/IJAET%20VOL%20IV%20ISSUE%20II%20APRIL%20JUNE%202013/Vol
%20IV%20Issue%20II%20Article%2012.pdf

6. APPENDIX

DATA SHEET
Belt width

: 20.9cm

Drive power : 1.5 kW

Belt length

: 391.7cm x 2

d1

: 15cm (junction at frequency

box)
Input weight : 200g

No.

: 5.3cm

Conveyor speed (rpm)

(frequency)

20 Hz
30 Hz
40 Hz
50 Hz

1
243.7
393.4
526.7
649.5

2
267.6
398.5
521.0
658.4

3
266.6
399.2
528.5
653.3

Average
259.3
397.0
525.4
653.7

Time

Input

Output

taken (s)

weight

weight

(g)

(g)

200
200
200
200

166.0
164.6
158.7
175.8

6.21
3.90
3.05
2.58

Calculation of the peripheral force on the timing belt

6

FU =

19.1 x 10 P
(d 1 .n 1)
Frequency, Hz
20 Hz
30 Hz

Calculation
6
19.1 x 10 (1.5)
150(259.3)

19.1 x 10 (1.5)
150(397.0)

FU

19.1 x 10 (1.5)
150(525.4)

FU

19.1 x 10 (1.5)
= 150(525.4)

FU
FU

40 Hz

Fu, N
736.60 N

481.11 N

363.53 N

50 Hz

292.18 N

Pre Tensioning
For conveyor, FP = FU

Cord check

Frequency, Hz

Fp, N

20 Hz
30 Hz
40 Hz
50 Hz

736.60 N
481.11 N
363.53 N
292.18 N

Max traction load

: 13650 N

Depend on type of belt

: Kevlar

Depend on width of belt

: 209 mm

Max traction load >

FP
2

+ ( F U . CS )

13650 >

20 Hz

736.6
2

+ ( 736.6 x

481.11
2

+ ( 481.11 x

363.53
2

+ ( 363.53 x

292.18
2

+ ( 292.18 x

13650 > 1399.54 N

1.4 )
13650 >

30 Hz

13650 > 914.11 N

1.4 )
13650 >

40 Hz

13650 > 960.75 N

1.4 )
13650 >

50 Hz

13650 > 555.14 N

1.4 )

Calculation for elongation proportional to max. traction load:

=

FU . 4
max .traction load

Frequency, Hz
20 Hz

Calculation
736.60 x 4
13650

0.22

30 Hz

481.11 x 4
13650

0.14

40 Hz

363.53 x 4
13650

0.11

50 Hz

292.18 x 4
13650

0.09

Material discharge rate

Material discharge weight
Time taken

Material discharge rate =

Frequency, Hz
20 Hz
30 Hz
40 Hz
50 Hz

Calculation
1.66
= 6.01

Material discharge rate, g/s

26.73 g/s

164.6
3.9

42.21 g/s

158.7
3.05

52.03 g/s

175.8
2.58

68.14 g/s

Material efficiency
material =

output
input

x 100

Frequency, Hz

Calculation

Material efficiency, %

20 Hz

material =

166.0
200

x 100

83.00 %

30 Hz

material =

164.6
200

x 100

82.30 %

40 Hz

material =

158.7
200

x 100

79.35 %

50 Hz

material =

175.8
200

x 100

87.90 %