INTROCON

INTROCON

General information

Conveyors with steel cord belts are typically used for carrying of bulky materials such as ore, coal, rocks for a long distance in mining and power industry, steel mills, sea ports, etc. Integrity of steel-cord conveyor belts considerably depends on condition of steel cords inside the belt. Broken cords, corrosion, poor splicing of the belt may cause accident. Steel-cord conveyor belt flaw detector INTROCON is designed for nondestructive inspection of steel cords during operation of the conveyor belt. The instrument can be also used for inspection of steel-cord conveyor belt during production run. INTROCON detects broken cords and optionally assesses general corrosion of cords. These features enable INTROCON to check and monitor condition of splicing areas by measuring the distance between ends of cords within splice, and thus makes possible to timely suspend the conveyor for repair of the belt when necessary.

INTROCON operation is based on eddy current principle of nondestructive testing, and can inspect conveyor belts from 600 mm to 3000 mm width and thickness from 10 to 50 mm at speed up to 7 m/s. Conception of the instrument allows its upgrade to implement INTROCON into conveyor monitoring system.

INTROCON comprises basic unit and scanner, connected with cable. The software Wintrocon is delivered with the INTROCON. The INTROCON basic unit is designed to collect and store inspection data from the scanner, and displaying important inspection data on-line. Basic unit is battery operated and produced for operation in normal or explosive environment. The scanner of built-up structure comprises 2 or 3 modules assembled together with the fish and connected with cable. Active module has implemented electronic circuitry and distance counter as well as the socket to connect basic unit. Both active and passive modules are equipped with sensors, located crosswise the belt, so steel cords are scanned by individual sensor during inspection. Prior to inspection, the scanner is attached to the steel frame by means of suspension system in the manner, that the air gap between the scanner and belt surface, depending on the number and diameter of steel cords, is from 10 to 20 mm. Scanners of type from S-800 to S-1600 operate with 1 basic unit, while S-1800 to S-3000 require simultaneous connection of 2 basic units. Calibration of the INTROCON is required prior to inspection. Calibration procedure is carried with the belt under inspection and take very short time.