Challenge: The cleaners previously installed on the belt head were bridging, causing the material to cake up between the cleaners, rendering them immobile. Clean coal fines were sticking to the belt and collecting throughout the conveyor and smoothing over the belt. A big part of the challenge was to be able to use the limited amount of space at the discharge chute to install the cleaners and effectively clean the belt, while keeping the chute and the cleaners from bridging, due to the consistency of the material.

Solutions: ASGCO^® recommended installing a combination of the Skalper^® IV primary belt cleaner, Dry-Wipe™ belt cleaner in the second position and the Razor-Back^® secondary belt cleaner as the final cleaner in the space provided. The Dry Wipe cleaner is usually installed as the final cleaner, but in this case we recommended trying it installed up against the head roller as the second cleaner. The addition of a 24” X 36” X ½” UHMW liner to line the back inside portion of the chute wall in order to prevent bridging between the cleaners and thereby eliminate the carry-back throughout the conveyor.

Results: With the combination of the ASGCO^® primary and secondary belt cleaners and the addition of the UHMW liner, the conveyor is now as clean at the tail as it is at the head. The efficiency of the Dry Wipe™ installed in the second position, in contact with the head roller, caused a squeegee effect along the roller removing even more of the particulate, and the Razor-Back^® secondary belt cleaner in the final position eliminated the remaining fines. This re-positioning of the belt cleaners made a significant difference resulting in no visible carry-back now in the tail section of the conveyor.