Smiley Monroe’s King Rollers reduce workplace noise for Irish Salt Mines
Smiley Monroe’s polymer King Rollers have helped Irish Salt Mines (ISME) to achieve their aim of further reducing workplace noise on an enclosed high-speed conveyor at their Kilroot site in Northern Ireland.
The reclaim tunnel conveyor, which is 1,200mm wide and 120m long, runs at 2.85m/s. Housed in a reinforced concrete tunnel below Irish Salt Mines’ storage facilities it transfers salt onto the ship-loading conveyor. As part of their on-going efforts to reduce workplace noise, ISME asked Smiley Monroe for suggestions on how this could be achieved in the tunnel. Smiley Monroe recommended replacing the existing steel idlers with polymer King Rollers, and since the customer had been using these successfully on their ship-loading conveyor for several years, this action was quickly implemented.
Jason Hopps, surveyor and health & safety ffficer with Irish Salt Mines, said: ‘I’m delighted with the performance of Smiley Monroe’s King Rollers, which have reduced noise levels significantly in our reclaim tunnel conveyor. After replacing steel return and trough idlers with King Rollers, independent tests recorded greater than a 50% noise reduction. We’re now actively replacing all remaining steel return and trough idlers on this conveyor with Smiley Monroe’s King Rollers.’
Keith Stevenson, Smiley Monroe’s product manager for King Roller, added: ‘We originally recommended King Rollers because of their robust design, which is suitable for coping with humid and corrosive environments, such as salt, zinc and potash mines. Unlike a steel idler, our anti-corrosive King Roller won’t rust and its triple labyrinth sealed bearings are proven to increase service life. In this case, however, it’s the added benefit of quieter running which results from King Roller’s polymer construction that has helped solve Irish Salt Mines’ workplace noise problem.’
As sole suppliers of conveyor belts and on-site vulcanizing services to ISME for almost 35 years, Smiley Monroe are very familiar with the harsh conditions in which their customer’s conveyor idlers operate. ISME are now using Smiley Monroe King Rollers on all of their surface conveyors, as hanging garlands, drop-in type end supported troughing sets and return idlers.
Apart from longer service life, increased uptime and health and safety benefits, King Roller is also 50% lighter than a traditional steel idler, so it’s easier to handle and can reduce a conveyor’s power consumption by up to 14%. Ultimately this will help reduce the business’ CO2 emissions and operating cost per tonne of material produced. With ever-rising costs in running plant and vehicles, King Rollers can assist energy-intensive operations, from quarries and mines to cement works, in making their sites more energy efficient.
