In today’s ever-changing world of coal handling, one thing stays the same, material like coal needs to be loaded and unloaded onto conveyor belts. You would think this process would be easy, build conveyors and chutes that carry the coal.

Many problems can occur with just transferring coal from one conveyor to another, material leaking from the loading point, belt mistracking at the tail pulley, conveyor chute leaking coal, is just a few. It is important to keep coal dust and coal spillage in the load zone area to a minimum. Many plants struggle to keep these areas clean, due to not having enough time or man power to properly adjust skirt rubber or fix holes in the chutes. When you walk around many load zone areas you usually find coal piles in between troughing idlers and on the floor. This coal spillage is expensive because there is a cost to remove the coal and if not properly fixed the coal piles will reoccur again and again. One thing is for sure, every plant that has conveyors has these problems.

That is why ASGCO® ‘Complete Conveyor Solutions’ has developed the first advanced containment for dust control solutions in the coal industry. The Pro-ZoneTM System is a patent pending modular conveyor belt load zone system that optimizes the seal for air/coal dust tightness on the receiving conveyor belt. This fully self-contained system is comprised of ASGCO®’s Slide-N-RollTM bed that supports the belt; this eliminates the gaps you would have in a typical load zone with standard troughing idlers. The Pro-ZoneTM has an easy ‘slide-out’ design for quick removal of the UHMW support bars. The Pro-ZoneTM allows users to choose from an impact or steel can idlers. ASGCO® can even manufacture the Pro- ZoneTM to allow the customer the choice of any idler company. The new centre roll design is quick to change out, just remove the retainer clips and pop the centre roller out and install the new roller. Side guards attach to the Slide-N- RollTM frame to create a side enclosure that allows the angled hoods to be easily mounted. Hoods can be made out of aluminium or steel which completely seals and encloses the entire system, chute inspection doors can be added to the hoods, this will make it possible to inspect the inside of the Pro-ZoneTM. Inside the Pro-ZoneTM are dust curtains that are anti-static and flame retardant. They are a very important component of the Pro-ZoneTM. Multiple curtains throughout the system allows dust to settle by slowing the air velocity down and allowing the airborne dust and particles to fall to the belt. The internal rubber seal, Dura-SealTM (ORG) is a red sealing rubber. Its soft seal qualities allow it to self-seal to the conveyor belt eliminating any possibility of grooving the belt. This special red ORG sealing rubber system helps contain the coal dust.

Many accessories are available with every Pro-ZoneTM system, Slide-lersTM can be mounted before and after the Pro-ZoneTM these Slide-lersTM give you the ability to change rolls without having to remove adjacent belt idlers. This allows the Slide-ler to fit in tight or confined spaces, ensuring proper belt support and ease of change out. Just remove two bolts and simply slide the wings and the centre roll out.

Two products that usually get forgotten about under every load zone are V-Plows and belt trainers. A Hinged V-Plow is designed to effectively keep bulk material from becoming trapped within the conveyor belt and the tail pulley. This unique patented design of the ‘Hinge’ part of the V-Plow allows users to change the amount of angle the plow can have from 30°, 45°, or 60°.

With every Pro-ZoneTM system it is recommended installingaTru-Trainer® ReturnIdler,thistrainingroller will keep the conveyor belt centred on the tail pulley which is very important in any load zone area. The

Tru-Trainer® has a stainless steel internal pivot that is perpendicular to the plane of the belt and its rubber covered shell and tapered ends help actuate the trainer immediately as the belt moves off centre. It’s always reacting to keep the belt centred. It does not wait, like conventional trainers, for the conveyor belt to walk over to the 90° sensor rollers and then have the belt react. The Tru-Trainer® Return Idler reacts as the belt moves off center and will contact the tapered section of the roller on that side of the conveyor belt. The effect of this will be to force the roller to rotate on its pivot causing the belt to come back to its original centred position.

The Pro-ZoneTM has been in service for about 10 months and has helped eliminate coal dust and spillage in the customers load zone areas. The customers are very happy with the performance of the Pro-ZoneTM system and it has reduced their clean-up costs.