Reliability of the belt conveyor bed when restoring failed roller supports

Abstract

Abstract The reliability of modern belt conveyors, whose length reaches tens of kilometers, is primarily determined by the reliability of the roller supports that support the belt and ensure its movement. As they wear out, some roller bearings fail and need to be repaired or replaced. The dynamics of the number of working roller supports is determined by the system of Kolmogorov equations. Their solution allows us to find the probabilities of finding the system in states with a different number of working elements. The article finds probabilities for two cases. In the first case, when restoring, only one roller support is repaired each time. In the second case, all roller supports are repaired or replaced. In the case of sequential recovery, the mathematical expectation of the number of properly working roller supports may be less than the total number by several units. There are always elements that need to be repaired. If the recovery rate of the elements is many times higher than the failure rate, the mathematical expectation of the number of properly operating roller supports is less than the total number of roller supports by less than one, during most of the time all roller supports are serviceable. In the case of simultaneous recovery of elements, an equally high level of reliability is achieved even with comparable failure and recovery rates. The results obtained can be used to determine the necessary reserve of spare structural elements and to plan the maintenance of conveyors.