Laboratory tribological tests of roller-conveyor belt interaction

Abstract

Belt conveyors are widely used for the transportation of bulk materials in mining and heavy industry. One of the major operational challenges in such systems is belt slippage, which may result in structural damage, production interruptions, and increased maintenance costs. In industrial practice, belt tracking is often corrected by skewing idlers; however, excessive skew angles may lead to increased wear of the conveyor belt cover and roller surfaces. Reliable investigation of the tribological phenomena occurring in the roller – conveyor belt friction pair therefore requires experimental testing under controlled laboratory conditions that reproduce real operating parameters.

This study presents the design and application of a dedicated laboratory test rig developed to investigate the tribological interaction between
a steel roller and a rubber conveyor belt cover in a roller–roller configuration. The design of the test stand was based on dimensional analysis and mechanical similarity theory in order to ensure geometric, kinematic and dynamic similarity to real conveyor operating conditions. An original measurement method based on the number of revolutions
of the samples was used to determine the volumetric wear of cylindrical rubber specimens, allowing long-term measurements without interrupting the experiment and ensuring a measurement accuracy of approximately 3%.

Experimental tests were conducted for several skew angles and operating speeds typical for conveyor systems. The wear intensity index and the coefficient of friction were determined as functions of skew angle, speed, and normal load. The results indicate that the wear intensity increases significantly when the skew angle exceeds approximately 3°, while for angles between 1 ° and 3 ° the wear intensity remains relatively low. The experimentally determined friction coefficient increases with the skew angle and decreases with increasing normal load. The developed methodology enables reliable evaluation of tribological parameters of the roller – belt system and supports optimisation of conveyor design parameters and belt durability.