Software for the numerical evaluation of conveyor belt lengths as a function of the installed power

This paper presents a public domain program to calculate the maximum permissible length of a single flight conveyor. The authors derive an analytical relationship between the coefficient of terminal friction and the length of a conveyor. This, with a standard method of deriving the conveyors resistance to motion, forms the basis of the program. At present this kind of evaluation tends to be performed by the vendor with their own proprietary software. Although the assistance of a conveyor manufacturer is very valuable, users should be in a position to make their own estimation of their requirements. This paper is designed to fulfill the need of the engineer to quickly calculate the permissible length of a belt conveyor as a function of installed power. A thoroughly documented FORTRAN 77 program is given to evaluate equations and produce tables or results and plots of relationships on Calcomp plotters. The use of the program is described in a “user manual” section. The practical significance and use of the results is discussed.