According to Kelly, MSHA inspectors have been issuing citations because equipment often leaves pinch points and moving components exposed.
“So what you end up seeing is angle iron and little pieces tacked on everywhere just to prevent access,” Kelly says. “People are improvising – sticking a coffee can on something just to cover it. It doesn’t make any sense.”
The motor-mount side traditionally has issues of its own, he adds.
“You’ve got 70 or so pieces of material – basically like a piece of IKEA furniture,” Kelly says. “You’ve got a million parts, a start point and an end point, but getting there is frustrating. There are so many components, and that creates a lot of opportunity for misalignment.”
When operators go to tension the belt, they often end up with angular misalignment.
“That leads to premature belt wear, premature sheave wear – all of that,” Kelly says.
Additionally, when operators install a traditional motor mount, belt guard and torque arm kit, Kelly says they are pulling seven of the eight housing bolts to mount everything. In other words, they’re basically taking apart the whole unit just to install it.
“That’s just the way it’s always been done, and nobody’s really stepped back to ask how it could be improved,” he says.
MPT, which showcased the Fortis SafeGuard system at ConExpo-Con/Agg, offers 27 finished part numbers for the system. A direct-drive system requires over 1,400, according to Kelly.
“No one is going to stock 1,400 part numbers – it just doesn’t make sense,” he says. “So belt-driven systems are still very important in the aggregate industry.”
As MPT worked toward a solution, its goal was to retain what’s great about belt-driven systems, make them MSHA-compliant and easier to work on, and eliminate the everyday frustrations operators endure.
“What we came up with is this design,” Kelly says.
Another industry safety issue involves belt guards, which are heavy and require workers to strap in or maneuver them over catwalks or railings.
The MPT design addresses that concern.
“On a size four unit, for example, we reduced the guard weight from about 40 lbs. down to 7 lbs.,” Kelly says. “That’s roughly an 80 percent reduction.”
The new MPT system also offers improvements in belt tensioning.
“Traditionally, you’re adjusting multiple points,” Kelly says. “We’ve eliminated that and created a single-point belt-tensioning system. You can drop the entire system, pop the belt off quickly and replace it just as fast. Then when you tension it, you’re not adjusting eight different nuts or trying to keep everything level. You don’t even have to loosen the motor bolts – they stay tight. You just run the single adjustment point, and you’re done.”
All of these new advantages originated by challenging a traditional norm.
“The industry is evolving,” Kelly says. “People are starting to reevaluate things that have just been accepted forever.”
Related: Other equipment developments that surfaced at ConExpo-Con/Agg
