12 Days of Bulk Material Handling: A Festive Countdown of Best Practices

Written by Chelsea Blake | Dec 13, 2024 5:45:11 PM

🗓️ There are exactly 12 days until Christmas...the perfect time to share a blog post highlighting 12 best practices. But, you don't have to wait until the 12th day to learn all of them as I will share them right here and right now.

1. Always Practice Conveyor Lockout/Tagout/Blockout/Testout Procedures

A crucial element of a conveyor safety program is the lockout/tagout/blockout/testout procedure. In the United States, lockout/tagout is mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), while the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has adopted a similar rule. To ensure complete safety in dealing with the potential energy stored in belt tension or elevated bulk materials, blockout/testout procedures are highly recommended.

The lockout/tagout rules stipulate that the power to the conveyor system (and any accessory equipment) must be shut down, locked, and tagged by the worker performing maintenance on the system. Only the person who applied the lockout can remove it, preventing accidental startup of the conveyor belt while maintenance is ongoing.

2. Guard Your Conveyors

A conveyor guard is a barrier to keep personnel away from dangerous pinch/nip points. The guards should be designed to prevent injury by making it physically impossible to reach a potentially dangerous piece of equipment. While it may not be a government requirement, conveyor belts should be guarded along walkways to prevent unwary employees from becoming trapped in the moving conveyor. It's important that guards be provided at every dangerous part of a conveyor normally accessible to personnel. Hazards are considered to be guarded by location if they are located a sufficient distance above the ground or walkway to prevent contact.

Free Webinar: Essential Conveyor Guarding Techniques

3. Clean Your Belts By Removing Carryback

Carryback refers to any material that remains on the conveyor belt past the discharge point. Material carryback often leads to issues such as belt mistracking, shortened belt life, increased manual cleanup, and other problems that result in conveyor downtime and costly repairs. Carryback is highly visible and can potentially draw negative attention from neighbors and regulatory agencies.

Learn How To Effectively Clean A Conveyor Belt

4. Seal The Conveyor Belt

Sealing the belt minimizes the escape of fugitive material. Skirting products maintain an effective seal without the need for regular maintenance. You can also prolong the life of the seal by shielding the sealing system from the material load with a wear liner.

Contain Dust & Fugitive Material By Sealing the Entry Area

5. Support The Belt

By absorbing the force of falling material at transfer points, you can minimize damage and excessive wear to the belt and structure, cutting down on fugitive material. When a belt is properly supported, belt sag is eliminated and therefore the problems that come along with it, such as; material spillage and airborne dust.

View On-Demand Webinar to Learn More

6. Resolve Conveyor Belt Mistracking

Keeping belts properly aligned prevents belt edge damage, extends belt life, reduces spillage, and minimizes wear and tear on equipment. By providing immediate and continuous precision adjustment, belt tracking systems keep conveyor belts tracked, even withstanding the stress caused by wider, thicker belts carrying heavier loads at high speeds.

Watch "Tracking the Untrackable Belt" Webinar

7. Prevent Unnecessary Component Damage With Tail Pulley Protection

Protect tail pulleys by preventing material that has landed on the inside of the belt during the return from being pulled into the tail pulley. If it isn’t removed, the material can cause extensive damage to the entire conveyor system, especially the tail pulley and the belt.

Learn Where To Place Pulley Protection

8. Reduce Dust By Utilizing Engineered Controls

MSHA recently introduced a rule that reduces permissible exposure limit (PEL) to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a full shift, calculated as an 8-hour weighted average. To comply with this rule, facilities are required to use engineering controls to limit exposure. The most effective engineering control to reduce silica dust at conveyor load zones is to eliminate dust at the source. Air speed can be reduced through proper belt support, belt sealing, and installation of dust curtains. When mines reduce the air speed inside a properly designed transfer chute, the exposure for workers is greatly reduced.

Download "Reduce Silica Dust" E-Book

9. Take Advantage of Technology

Imagine the magic of remotely monitoring belt cleaner blades! The N2^® Position Indicator pairs intuitive technology with an exclusive mobile app to indicate remaining blade life, notify when re-tensioning or replacement is required, and provide warning in the event that the blade is no longer in contact with the belt.

10. Inspect & Maintain Conveyor Systems

Regular inspection and maintenance must not be underemphasized or ignored. The best way to ensure your equipment is running optimally is to properly maintain it. Routine inspections not only bring to light what is in need of immediate attention but also allows for recognizing opportunities for improvement.

11. Ask For Help

Sometimes, a set of objective eyes can help with conveyor inspections and maintenance as they see things differently and could catch something that familiar eyes look past.

Martin^® Walk the Belt™ team goes through extensive training on inspecting conveyor systems and assessing their performance to maximize productivity and reduce unscheduled downtime. These free inspections include a thorough review of the entire conveyor system, including the belts, cleaners, tracking systems, chutes, and more.

Our experts in the field stumble upon many belt cleaner systems that are not properly installed or maintained. That revelation led to the start of our Mr. Blade^® program:

Factory-direct special pricing
Free professional blade installation
Continuing professional multipoint survey of your full system
Guaranteed optimal performance for the life of the blade
Regular service of your belt cleaning and sealing systems
Retrofit blades to replace blades from any manufacturer

12. Educate Yourself & Your Crew With Proper Training

'Tis the season...sharing is caring. We offer a wide variety of formats and topics for furthered material handling education:

Does Santa Use A Belt Conveyor System?!

Imagine if Santa used a belt conveyor at his toy workshop (I mean, he might already)...think of how many trips that would save the elves while loading up the sleigh! Imagine if he did not...I feel like even a jolly elf's morale would be negatively affected (not to mention his/her poor back).

We may never know the answer to the above question. Perhaps it is what we choose to believe...just like the debatable question of whether or not Santa wraps his gifts (Santa does not wrap the gifts he leaves in our home). 🎁I choose to believe that Santa thrives off of efficiency, productivity, and safety and that he has equipped his workshop with the grandest of conveyors! How else can he do what he does? I also think Santa's helpers regularly inspect and maintain the conveyor system using these 12 best practices - they can't afford any downtime. Wishing you a festive, merry, and safe Christmas! 🎄

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