Newland have been working with suppliers to produce a more efficient & energy saving telescopic belt conveyor that is beneficial to the customer & ultimately the world we live in.
Reducing energy consumption saves money & helps address climate change by lowering carbon emissions & the impact on natural resources.
Energy consumption is becoming a more important factor in conveyor applications and a key decision factor by customers in the procurement process.
Three main factors influence the power demands of a multi-telescopic belt conveyor:
- Motor Efficiency
- Conveyor Design
- Belt Selection
High efficiency motors is a good place to start. As the name indicates, these motors are improved to deliver the same amount of power using less energy, resulting in reduced energy costs. The savings range from 3% to 10% over traditional motors.
Equipment controls are another means of keeping conveyor energy costs down. These controls take and interpret information coming from the motors. This information then allows the controls to regulate the motors according to production requirements. For example, conveyors generally had two options—off or on. “On” meant running the conveyor at full-speed regardless of the need. In other words, the conveyor would run at the same speed (consuming the same amount of energy) regardless whether the conveyor was full and busy or experiencing mostly inactivity. The introduction of variable frequency drives (VFD) allows for regulating the conveyor speed and adjusting the speed to meet production needs. Another benefit of VFDs is its ability increase speed slowly while minimizing the surge of power. Both features significantly reduce the amount of energy used.
We can dramatically reduce energy costs related to our telescopic belt conveyors by incorporating tactics such as high efficiency motors, drives and systems designed to maximize production when energy costs are the least. However, we also realise it is possible to achieve additional savings by reducing the amount of friction on the telescopic belt conveyor.
Belt selection is an important factor, using ‘Energy Saving Belts’. Maximizing energy savings in the conveyor by reducing the coefficient of friction (COF) [this is the ratio between the force necessary to move one surface over another and the pressure between the two surfaces] and related higher energy requirement adds to conveying energy costs. Even with energy savings gained by installing efficient motors, controls and implementing entirely new systems, friction caused by the handling or weight of products on the conveyor will actually lower those gains. The more friction on the conveyor belt caused by handling and weight of the product conveyed the more energy is required to move the product
System designs featuring the right belt, driven by using an efficient drive design on a compatible conveyor frame, often achieve notable reductions in energy consumption compared to conveyors using traditional designs & component technology.
ENERGY EFFIENCY RATING
Newland is working towards allocating all machine models with an energy efficiency rating similar to that currently applied to some household goods such as fridges, freezers, washing machines & televisions.
Work has already been undertaken with the direction of the FEM [European Federation of Materials Handling]. In line with the EcoDesign directive [Directive 2009/125/EC] the FEM has asked Karlsruher Institut für Technologie & Institut für Föfdertechnik und Logistik to develop a common standard for forecasting the energy consumption of a materials handling system.
It is possible within the next few years, once the benchmarking has been agreed & adopted by the FEM, all materials handling suppliers will be required to give an energy efficiency rating for their equipment.
info@newland-conveyors.co.uk