Limestone may be inert but belts, lubricants, bearings and motors are
not !
British Steel suffered a £25m fire from a fire in a limestone conveyer
in one of their plants which took the facility off line for almost
three months.
The other problem is, define fire resistance: - Canadian Bureau of
Mines? German DIIN ( three separate classifications for belts)?
Japanese ?
My advice (based on what most international insurers now demand is to
install sprinklers/deluge protection on all inclined conveyors which
are essential for the operation of the facility. This is also covered
in NFPA 850.
Stewart
Stewart Kidd
www.risk-consultant.com
On 24 Nov 2008, at 14:17, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Ron,
When you say "tube style", I am assuming that is the same as "pipe"
conveyors where the belt is open at loading and unloading ends, but is
"wrapped" closed by idlers for travel between conveyor ends and is
flat
for the return travel. Is that correct?
If the belt is fire resistive, it might not need water spray
protection
for the return belt depending upon the quantity of coal dust still
adhering to the belt.
I have recently done a 1000 ft. limestone conveyor of this type,
where the
client wanted both belts protected even though the belt was fire
resistive
and belt motors were interlocked to shut down the conveyor. - over
kill in
my opinion, since limestone is inert.
For that situation, spray nozzles were provided over the top of the
top
conveyor and at the side to spray between belts and below the return
belt.
Regards,
James L.(Jim) Roberts, PE/SET
Fluor Corporation
100 Fluor Daniel Drive - C104F
Greenville, SC 29607
864.281.5149
864.281.4916(Fax)
"Rod DiBona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
11/21/2008 06:33 PM
Please respond to sprinklerforum
To
<sprinklerforum@firesprinkler.org>
cc
Subject
Coal conveying belts
I am wondering what is typically done when covering an elevated (40'
and
higher) and enclosed tube style coal conveyor. The property in
question
is an FM property. The dilemma that I am trying to resolve is that
when
looking at FM data sheets 7-11 and 4-1N it only shows and talks about
configurations to cover the top belt with no mention whatsoever of the
return belt. NFPA #15 7.2.3.3.2 says "Discharge patterns of water
spray
nozzles shall envelop at a net rate of not less than .25 gpm/ft, the
top
and bottom belt surface area, conveyor surfaces where combustible
materials are likely to accumulate, the structural parts, and the
idler
rolls supporting the belt."
This seems to be a rare case where FM's requirement is less stringent
than NFPA. In this case I am dealing with Powder River Basin coal
which
is more likely to spontaneously combust than coal from other areas
so I
would really feel better about doing both belts. At the end of the day
FM will dictate the minimum but I wanted to be fully informed to give
the owner all options. Thanks for your input as always.
Rod DiBona
Rapid Fire
_______________________________________________
Sprinklerforum mailing list
http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
------------------------------------------------------------
The information transmitted is intended only for the person
or entity to which it is addressed and may contain
proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material.
If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are
hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination,
distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon
this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please
contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual
sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company.
------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Sprinklerforum mailing list
http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
_______________________________________________
Sprinklerforum mailing list
http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
