VANCOUVER, British Columbia—The Canadian port of Vancouver is using Continental conveyor belts for the trans-shipment of potash from its docks across the world.
Continental noted that Vancouver needed conveyor belts that offered durability. In 2017, Canada exported about 19 million tons of potash and leads the global export market with about 40 percent of the market share, according to Natural Resources Canada.
With loading capacity of up to 2,500 metric tons per hour, the belts also feature ContiPlus online service which enables the monitoring of the performance of the conveyor belts. The system measures and stores the thickness of the conveyor belt top cover at each service, using a mobile ultrasound scanner, Continental said in a news release.
The process, Continental said, also provides "precise condition monitoring" through a continuous record of the belt's state and can predict when a belt should be changed due to wear.
"Once the belt has almost reached the end of its lifetime, the customer, distributor or sales employee receives a notification on their mobile device to coordinate the belt change," Lyall Sharman, area sales manager for industrial products at Continental said in a news release.
This allows operators to make the best use of the conveyor belt's lifetime while avoiding downtime, he said.
In the long-term, the detailed data also offers transparency, according to Continental.
"The software records every detail and brings structure to all the system-related information," Sharman said, noting that information about the belt's life can be traced. "Transparency is significantly increased. Every new employee immediately has access to all the information on the belt system, i.e. including its history. That saves a great deal of time and money."