LABORATORY SIMULATION OF THE WEAR PROCESS OF BELT CONVEYOR ROLLERS

Rollers used to support belt conveyors deteriorate as the result of a three-body wear process in which ore particles become trapped between the belt and roller to create abrasive wear under slight stress. There fore, when a roller blocks as the result of a change in rolling motion , the combined action of the belt and abrasive particles transforms th e steel roller into a sharp instrument that can cut the belt. New comp osite materials that prevent this from happening are currently the sub ject of experiments in plants and laboratories. The rubber wheel test simulates the type of wear that occurs when the roller is blocked. To correctly simulate the wear of rollers under normal conditions, the ru bber wheel test apparatus was modified to allow the sample to turn and thus, more accurately duplicate in situ conditions. In this paper, we compare the wear resistance of a low carbon steel and polyester matri x composites containing hard particles. For all tests, the loss of wei ght converted into loss of volume was used to determine wear resistanc e.