The Application of ATV1200 in Belt

Conveyor Used in Jinjie Coal Mine

owned by Shenhua Shendong Coal
Group Corporation Limited
Global Marketing Division of Schneider Electric’s Medium Voltage
Drive
Abstract: This article introduces the application of ATV1200, Schneider Electric’s
new-generation medium voltage (MV) inverter, in belt conveyor used in Jinjie coal mine
owned by Shenhua Shendong Coal Group Corporation Limited.
Key words: Coal mine, ATV1200, medium voltage (MV) inverter, belt conveyor, harsh
environment, master-slave control
1. Foreword
China Shenghua Energy Company Limited, a world leading integrated energy company
based on coal, is China’s largest coal enterprise with the highest level of automation and
the world’s largest coal dealer, mainly specializing in production and sales of coal &
electric power, the transportation of coal by means of railway, port, fleet of ships, etc. In
December, 2012, Schneider Electric won the bid to offer MV inverters to China Shenhua
Energy Company Limited Shendong Coal Group for belt conveyors used in its Jinjie coal
mine.

2. Belt Conveyor Classification

By angle of inclination：
Uphill belt, horizontal belt, downhill belt
Feature: There are no energy feedback problems with uphill belt and horizontal belt during
operation, therefore only the common two-quadrant inverter is required for use. For
downhill belt, when its angle of inclination is greater than a certain value, potential energy
will be greater than work applied by friction, so the excess energy needs to be fed back to
the power grid. In such case, it is necessary to use four-quadrant energy feedback type
inverter.
By the number of drive motor：
Single-motor drive, multi-motor drive
Feature:
Single-motor drive allows control to be easy and reliable and commissioning to be
convenient.
Multi-motor drive requires multiple motors to coordinate control to ensure the load balance
of each motor, which is more complex in control. It is required that the master-slave
control mode or Droop function is used to ensure the same output torque of each motor.
By drive end：
Single-end drive and double-end drive
Feature:
For single-end drive, the drive motor is located at the side of belt conveyor, with high belt
tension.
For double-end drive, the drive motors are properly deployed at both sides of the belt, with
low belt tension. However, the coordination control of motors is more complex.
3. Process
Coal belt conveyor is an efficient means of transport for the conveyance of coal, which is
characterized by high throughout, strong ability to operate continuously, high efficiency,
etc. Since the coal conveying quantity varies with the change of coal yield in pit bottom
and working system, it is a need to regulate the speed of belt conveyor to avoid from
energy loss. For conventional belt conveyors used in coal mine, hydraulic coupler is used
to regulate the speed, which has many disadvantages including low driving efficiency, high
impact of starting current/mechanical shock, unbalanced power, high maintenance cost
and other problems. For current coal mine belt conveyors, the inverter is used. This article
specifies the application of HV inverter in coal mine belt conveyor in detail and how to take
an advantage of HV inverter to avoid from various potential issues that belt conveyor may
happen to during operation, which figures out a new speed regulation method for the
speed regulation of coal mine belt conveyor.
The belt conveyor used in Shendong Jinjie coal mine is equipped with multi-motor
single-end uphill belt. At the side of belt conveyor, there are two electric motors on the
same axis, and the two motors needs to perform master-slave control to guarantee the
balance of output torque of motors.
Specific process requirements:
a. The inverter requires master-slave control and motor can achieve load balance.
b. With high starting torque, the belt conveyor can start with full load.
c. Any one of the motors can serve as main motor.
d. As the power grid voltage sags 25%, no shutdown of inverter should be guaranteed.
e. No influence can be had on the operation of inverter, because the harmonics at grid
side is high.
f. The power factor of inverter at grid side is required to be above 0.95
g. Since the site is heavy with dust, a better dust prevention performance is required
4. Responding to Challenges
a. Master-slave control is adopted, and the two inverters can transfer the output torque
to each other. The main inverter is given with frequency setting, while the slave
inverter is given with torque setting, both of which is switchable, thus achieving load
balance. And any one of the motors can be set as main motor.
b. The selected heavy-duty inverter features high starting torque, which fully satisfies
the starting requirements.
c. ATV1200 has a strong capacity to resist voltage fluctuation. As the input voltage
sags 25%, the inverter operates with de-rating output power and will not cause
shutdown.
d. The original harmonics of the grid will not cause any influence on the motor under
 the condition of directly driving motor, and accordingly will not do any damages to
inverter.
e. ATV1200 is voltage source type inverter, with large capacitance inside, which can
efficiently improve the power factor of the grid. The power factor of inverter at grid
side is above 0.95.
f. ATV1200 is protected with IP31 and has very good ash removal performance.
During the service period, check if there is any dust in strainer and in inverter
cabinet. Generally, only the strainer is required to be disassembled for cleaning,
which is very easy to maintenance.
5. Customer Feedback
The inverter was put into use in May, 2013. And Mr. Zhang, Mine Manager, at
customer’s coal mine said that Schneider Electric’s MV inverter, which operated in a
stable way, had a great contribute to the coal production in a stable manner in coal
mine; and they were planning to use Schneider Electric’s MV inverter for another
main draft fan in their mine.
6. Conclusion
Belt conveyor is widely used in mining and cement industries, which have a high
requirement on the reliability and stability of HV inverter. The successful application
in this project shows that the solution of ATV1200 MV inverter used in belt conveyer
has been proven to be very sophisticated and reliable.