A 6.2 km conveyor has been built in France for a French cement manufacturer. The conveyor belt, which is the longest in Europe, was installed in eastern France to help feed a cement plant, and was installed by Techmi, French experts in bulk handling, and their partners ContiTech.
The cement plant is owned by Vicat, in the small town of Montalieu. The owners were presented with a quandary – how could they transport limestone to the plant from the quarry when it was around 6.2km away from the plant? There needed to be a cost-effective solution, and Vicat embarked upon a project to develop a conveyor belt for the task.
Techmi won the project based on their successful quotation, and ContiTech were taken on as their strategic partners. ContiTech have many years of experience with conveyor belts which can negotiate bends and the company also produces high-quality eco-friendly products.
Requirements were tough, but the result has proved to be pretty impressive. The endless belt is in the region of 13km long and even does a twist and turn on the head and tail of the system to run parallel to the loaded belt on the return.
Based on a Techmi patent, concrete walls and a cover encase the entire conveyor, so that the system blends in with its surroundings. This also means that it’s possible for animals and vehicles to cross over safely.
ContiTech produced and delivered the belt within just five weeks. Thirteen 1km rolls, weighing 20 tonnes each, had to be shipped from Volos to Fos-sur-Mer (on the French Mediterranean coast) and then before being transported more than 360km to Montalieu, using heavy trucks.
Once the components reached Montalieu, the belt was assembled on-site.
“We did the job in two stages and spent a total of two months on location splicing the 13 sections of belt together in the middle of winter”, said Jan Poppe, head of field service international.
The 260-tonne conveyor belt is powered by three 250kW electric motors, and has been in use since mid-October. The belt transports limestone at a rate of up to 700 tonnes per hour in normal use – but at maximum capacity it can move as much as 1,000 tonnes per hour!
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