Application and Development Trends of Conveyor Belt Scales

Belt scales, as automatic weighing instruments for continuous cumulative weighing and metering of bulk materials such as coal, sand, ore, and cement during dynamic conveyance, are widely applied in various industrial production and management scenarios. Based on their usage, belt scales can be primarily categorized into two main aspects:

Firstly, they can be integrated into feeders to accomplish quantitative production control feeding, where the conveyor and belt scale are one unit, controlling the flow rate of conveyed materials to meet the requirements of the production blending process.

Secondly, belt scales can be installed on existing belt conveyors at the site, completing the weight measurement and flow accumulation of conveyed materials during the conveyance process, known as conveyor belt scales, which are integrated into the original belt conveyor system.

Conveyor belt scales are installed on belt conveyors at user sites to convey materials and, based on dynamic metering, can be utilized for different purposes, mainly divided into three aspects: internal enterprise metering management, trade settlement, and production process monitoring.

Applications of Conveyor Belt Scales

1. Enterprise Metering Management Conveyor Belt Scales

   Many enterprises often weigh materials before storing them in warehouses, and settlement between different departments or assessment of different units requires metering of raw materials or finished products, using metering data as the basis for warehousing, settlement, and assessment.

Such belt scales typically require an accuracy of ±0.5% to ±1.0%. These belt scales often adopt multi-idler, lever-type structures, utilizing frictionless ear-axis pivots and equipped with one or two weighing sensors. In scenarios where the conveyor inclination angle is small and higher accuracy is required, a fully suspended structure can also be chosen.

2. Trade Settlement Conveyor Belt Scales

   At loading points for trucks, ships, and ports, users and customers often require settlement for sales and trade, involving economic interests.

Therefore, conveyor belt scales used for trade settlement typically demand high accuracy and stability, usually requiring an accuracy of ±0.2% to ±0.5%. Such belt scales often require a high-precision, fully suspended scale frame structure, such as the multi-idler ICS-14 belt scale with crossbeams.

In cases where higher accuracy is required and conveyor conditions are not ideal (e.g., with a large inclination angle), a matrix-combined fully suspended belt scale can be configured, equipped with multiple weighing modules and high-precision weighing sensors according to accuracy requirements.

3. Production Process Monitoring Conveyor Belt Scales

   In industries such as building materials, steel, and coal washing plants, there are process control links during production, such as feeder control for crushers and ball mills, conveyor flow control, and coal washing volume control in coal washing plants.

Due to their impact on production quality and efficiency, conveyor belt scales used in these processes require high accuracy and stability, typically within ±0.5% to ±0.2%. Such belt scales often opt for multi-idler, fully suspended structures, equipped with multiple high-precision weighing sensors.

Development Trends of Conveyor Belt Scales

With the advancement of belt scale technology and its widespread application, along with the upgrading of fine management requirements in the industrial sector, higher demands have been placed on conveyor belt scales.

Overall, the development trends of belt scales include digitization, networking, high precision, high reliability, intelligence, and real-time online calibration. The digitization of belt scale weighing sensor signals enables longer-distance transmission of load signals with stronger anti-interference capabilities.

The Internet of Things (IoT) metering management platform for belt scales allows for remote monitoring, real-time monitoring, and application analysis, enhancing the stability of the entire metering system and reducing maintenance workload.

Belt scales incorporate more compensation functions and redundant designs to improve overall accuracy and reliability. The instruments of belt scales feature intelligent monitoring and diagnostic functions, enabling automatic online calibration and zeroing during the metering process, resulting in higher accuracy and more reliable operation of the belt scales.

In conclusion, with the improvement in their performance, metering accuracy, and stability, conveyor belt scales have found wider applications. The adoption of various new technologies has elevated the performance and functionality of belt scales to new heights.