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Important Weight Reduction of Rollers for 108 inch Sacrificial Belt

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A customer from Northern Chile contacted CPS to discuss options for their load and return rollers on their sacrificial belt. Chilean regulations aim to improve ergonomics for maintenance personnel and the site was also looking to extend the life of the rollers.

Chilean "Sack" Law

CPS’ lightweight alternatives to steel rollers are especially appropriate in Chile where, over the past decade, the Chilean government has been gradually improving health & safety legislation to make working conditions better for all who work in Chile. One of these laws, the “Ley del Saco 20949”, roughly translated as “Sack Law 20949”, reduced the recommended maximum lift weight for an individual from 50kg down to 25kg for men and 20kg for women and people under 18 years of age.

At the site in question the steel load rollers had an average unit weight of 46 kg making work complex, hard and unsafe for the maintenance personnel and not compliant with the sack law. The weight of steel rollers also unduly slowed work, from the transport of the units to the platform and the actual installation. The return rubber disc rollers were showing irregular and premature wear on their discs, causing an unpredictable replacement rate.

The Solution

CPS Engineers performed comprehensive calculations on loads, stresses, weight, speed and other relevant factors, providing a complete solution.

Steel load rollers were replaced with Yeloroll-HD premium composite rollers. Each of the composite rollers had a unit weight of 24 kg, complying with the “Sack Law”.

For the return rollers, the proposal involved the installation of Yeloroll-HD rollers. There were some concerns around the 1.6 meter shell length, but CPS calculations confirmed the correct resistance for safe use on a 108” wide belt in a V-return application.

Sacrificial Conveyor case study

The Results

The new rollers have been in operation for 12 months without premature wear, noise or deviations from normal operating conditions. All CPS rollers are equipped with CBH (Composite Bearing Housing) bearings, which creates a weld-free roller between the shell and the bearing housing. This means that, should a failure occur the roller will NOT create a longitudinal belt cut otherwise know as a ‘pizza cutter’ cut.

CPS is proud that 70% of our rollers are ‘Sack Law’ compliant to make life healthier for those on site. CPS has also introduced a labelling system to help customers identify which rollers are safe to lift including an “H” mark if the roller is designed to be carried by men and a “M” mark if it is suitable for women to carry. CPS products not only perform at their best, but also put the wellbeing of workers first.