Challenge: Production department complained to the maintenance superintendents about the unavailability of the conveyor belt for unknown motives when running in dryer conditions without a counter weight. This particular conveyor belt tended to mistrack when the belt was running, but not loaded. As a result, the mistrack sensors would constantly stop this conveyor belt that outputs roughly 10,800 tons of copper ore per hour. After many head and tail pulley calibrations the problems continued and ASGCO^® was called in to specify an effective tracking system.

SOLUTION/
ASGCO^®’s representatives performed a complete conveyor survey and had mine personnel describe the issues. After thorough analysis, ASGCO^® recommended installing two 96” Dual Return Tru-Trainers^®. With a solution in mind, the main issue the site faced was stopping operations for a prolonged period of time. With only 4 to 5 hours available for installation, ASGCO^® adapted to the situation and installed both Dual Return Tru-Trainers on a Sunday while maintenance supervisors were on leave without contracting any additional resources.

RESULTS/
Following ASGCO^®’s improvements, the conveyor belt now remains centered when running without a load and does not trigger mistracking sensors which would cause unplanned down time, use of electrical personnel and unplanned production stoppage. As a result, on-site staff can now use the conveyor belt at all times and production in the copper mine has increased.