Date: 11th June, 2020

Study of Trip setting of different conveyors

1. Conveyor capacity:
There are two basic capacities in conveyor, one is design capacity and other is nominal capacity (rated capacity). This is
to distinguish between design limit and operating rate.
There is a third capacity where there is instantaneous overloading situation. In such situation, a peak capacity is
considered.
Nominal capacity, Design capacity and Peak Capacity is explained as below:
• Nominal capacity or rated capacity is the capacity at which the conveyor delivers the expected daily throughput
that governs 70% (at least) of production time.
• Design capacity is 110% of the rated capacity. It takes care of make-up capacity or temporary surges which can
be of approximately 15% at most of the total operating time.
• Peak capacity denotes a capacity which is designed for very rare operation to take care of plant operating factors,
which is close to 125% above nominal capacity.

Nominal Capacity, design capacity and peak capacity are graphically represented as below:
Operating frequency at different capacity
80
Nominal, >=70% Rated, >=70%
70
% of total operating time/hour
Ref: L&T
60
EDRC, Kali
50
FLC, CDI
40

30

20 Design,<=15%

10
Peak, <=0.3%
0

2. Conveyor Trip Setting

For Motor current trip setting, steps are defined in the Technical Guideline for conveyor Motor overload
setting -SSTG/TG/ELEC/11 as below:

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Regarding conveyor safety following steps to be noted for trip setting on Capacity (TPH):

1. If conveyor tripping (overload trip) is set at or below rated capacity (TPH) in that case conveyor is always safe.

2. If conveyor is set to trip above rated capacity but within designed capacity, the conveyor is safe. But in stretched
operation zone. In this case maintenance/inspection of conveyor need to revisit for higher frequency in comparison to
case 1.

3. Where ever conveyor tripping is set above designed capacity and there is no peak load defined by design, the conveyor
may face failure of weakest component. In such case it is advisable to take designers approval. Sometimes there are
cushions available beyond design limit.

4. In case there is peak load defined, till the TPH is below the peak value it is safe, but it should be very rarely and
intermittently.

In no case, Motor current trip setting should be higher than conveyor safe TPH value.

Analysis of three conveyors is shown in the table below. Sl No.1, CC14 conveyor of RMM is having trip setting above
Design capacity (Not OK) while motor current setting is at 120% of running peak current. While other two conveyors Sl.
no2 and Sl no3, the trip setting is OK; i.e. within rated TPH and also at 120% of the running peak current.

Calculated
Rated Design
Motor Power Current Vs TPH Setting
TPH TPH
(KW) Installed Full
Name of Motor Load
S.N. Department Trip current Remarks
Conveyor Power Current Running TPH at trip
At At (120% of Equivalent
(KW) (amps) Peak TPH at peak current(120
As per GA Drawing Rated Design running KW at Trip
current current % of peak
TPH TPH peak current
(amps) current)
current)
Trip setting is above Design
TPH, which is against the
1 RMM CC#14 (COAL) 800 880 96 103 132 228 176 865 211 122 1078 standard, we have tried to
converge in.

2 RMM CC#26 (COAL) 800 880 50 52 75 122 66 453 79 49 748 Trip setting is within rated TPH

3 Pellet Plant PC#5 (PELLET) 1500 1650 270 284 350 39 22 732 27 242 1203 Trip setting is within rated TPH

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References: (Information received of designers)

Capacity L&T EDRC Kali FLCE CDI-1(conveyor CDI-2 (conveyor Dynamics Inc.)
Dynamics Inc.)
Rated It is guaranteed Is the average With Consideration of denotes the expected daily
capacity per hour capacity the equipment life such as throughput that governs 70% of
run conveyor is idler, pulley, reducer production time, with the other
intended to and motor bearings times divided between empty belt
operate and wear components (15-25%) and design capacity
such as belt covers operations (10-15% of the day.
etc.
Design Design margin Is with factor of is used to set motor, denotes a make-up capacity or
consider for safety over belt and structural temporary surges to contain spillage.
achieving rated loads. Makeup is usually applied to 2 days
guaranteed of a 7-day week with 48 hours to
capacity catch-up on an 8 hour PM down
time. Thus, 8/48 = 17% minimum
addition to the rated (nominal).
Peak Peak Capacity in Is the maximum For momentary or add the mechanical outage, other
yard M/c, the belt can peak load conditions non-reliability factors, and plant
Crushing circuit, handle that exceed a fully operating factors, which puts close
where surges will intermittently loaded belt at design to adding 25%. It is a peak which is
come few rarely operated.
(approx. 5
minutes of day)
minutes is called
peak capacity
~0.34%

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