Durability Conveyor Belt in Pelletizer Unit‒Operation Original Research Article Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research Vol. 1 (3), 2014, 71–78 Sanjay Pandey, Omprakash Sahu *, Raja Thiyagarajam

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Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research
Vol. 1 (3), 2014, 7178
JCMR
Journal of Chemistry and
Materials Research
ORICPublications
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Original Research
Durability Conveyor Belt in Pelletizer Unit‒Operation
Sanjay Pandey 1
, Omprakash Sahu 2,
*, Raja Thiyagarajam 2
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, KIT Jamnagar (Gujarat), India
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, JRET, Trichy (Tamil Nadu) India
Received 01 August 2014; received in revised form 01 September 2014; accepted 04 September 2014
Abstract
The 21st century factory will often have several conveyor belts operating at the same time. Without the conveyor belt, the factory system would
not be able to handle the production demands made upon them, and industry would not be able to transport their materials from the area of
manufacture to the delivery vans. In the past, older belts needed to have a leather or rubbery surface which often wore down quickly, and
needed to be turned at a slow speed to prevent breaks and sudden failures of these conveyors. Many of them required manual assistance to turn,
so they needed a constant source of labor. However, designers realized the importance of these belts, and started to come up with ways to
improve the system. Now industry metal conveyors are used but due to bearing, tearing, corrosion problem facing by industry. By alloying on
the surface of metal conveyor it can be prevent all most. The main objective of the work is to brief idea about the two metals i.e. iridium and
tantalum several comparative results are attached to understand the corrosive resistance nature of these two metals.
Keywords: Acidic; Bearing; Corrosion; Damage; Tearing.
1. Introduction
Conveyors are playing important role in transporting heavy
and large materials and packages. They are very effective and
efficient which makes them usable in nearly all industries that
require material handling. Conveyor systems are even
regularly used in sorting by postal and freight companies and
for air-port baggage handling. As a conveyor is extremely
important in a company to efficiently increase its production in
an extremely judicious manner, it is considered the lifeline of
their business [1]. Proper maintenance is therefore an
important need to insure its high performance rating. It
requires frequent inspection and monitoring of motors,
availability of key parts, and proper training of maintenance
personnel. Picking the proper conveyor type and system design
is extremely important to ensure it works as envisioned. An
accurate selection of a suitable conveyor system is therefore
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +000 00000000; fax: +000 00000000.
E-mail address: ops0121@gmail.com (O. Sahu).
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important. Things just like shape, weight and material of the
conveyed products need to be considered. Proper maintenance
would increase the service life of your conveyor system. There
are several types of conveying systems which suit the different
requirements of various industries [2].
Conveyors are widely used in manufacturing and
warehousing, handling bulk material. They're even used in the
automation of different manufacturing procedures. Industries
include electronics, automotive, agricultural, food processing,
canning, bottling, pharmaceuticals, furniture, scrap metals,
packaging and oil refinery [3].In the Pelletizer Unit operation
is based on the Rotoform Process. The liquid Sulphur is
supplied from the degasification vessel by the liquid Sulphur
pumps via a LP steam jacketed pipeline to the pelletizer. To
guarantee a constant pressure in the branch piping to each
Rotoform unit a return line with a pressure controlled
reduction valve (62PV-801) back to the degasification vessel
is installed.. Each pastillating unit consists of a drop former
and a steel belt cooler with a release agent system.
Corrosions in steel belt conveyor due to introduction of the
liquid sulphur on steel belt. The temperature of liquid sulfur
falling on the steel belt conveyor is very high upto 1250c and
the corrosion resistance of steel belt conveyor is very less due
to which the material of the belt corrodes. The main aim of

2. 72 S. Pandey et al. / Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research 1 (2014) 71–78
Table 1 Corrosion Resistance Of Different Alloy.
S.N
o
Material class Material General corrosion
resistance
Corrosion rate in
H2SO4.
Other characteristics
and properties
1 Cast iron Cast iron-grey
white and
ductile
Resistance to conc.
Strong acids and to
caustic alkaline
solutions. Rapidly
corroded by acid salt
solutions.
>1270µm/year
(10% by weight).
Cheap metal without
any strategic metals,
easy to caste into
complex shape, not
readily machined or
welded.
2 Stainless steel FerriticSS,marte
nsiticSS,austenit
ics SS
Mildly corrosive in
diluted solutions and in
unchlorinated solutions
1000µm/year
(1% by weight)
Easy to machine and
easy to weld.
3 Nickel alloys Large amount of
nickel.
High temperature
service in reducing
oxidizing
environments.
500µm/year
(50% by weight).
Good thermal and
electrical properties.
4 Copper alloys Cupro-nickel. Higher corrosion
resistance among all cu
alloys.
500µm/year
(50% by weight).
Good electrical and
thermal conductivity.
Ductile and cold
working.
Difficult to machine.
5 Lead alloys Chemical lead. Chemically inert in
various corrosive
media eg: chromates
sulphates etc.
130µm/year
(50% by weight).
Cheap construction
material, low b.p.
,high thermal linear
expansion coefficient.
6 Precious
metals
Noble metals
-Au,Ag
Platinum group
metals-Rh, Rd,
Pd, Os, Ir, Pt.
Excellent corrosive
resistance in several
corrosive media.
Very high cost.
7 Refractory
metals
Titanium and
alloys.
Excellent corrosion
resistance in wet
chlorine ,media
containing chloride
ions and in oxidizing
chloride brines but in
strong mineral acids it
forms a poor resistance
media.
>31750µm/year
(80% by weight)
Construction material
and sea water
desalination plants
and in pulp and paper
bleaching plants.
8 Niobium and
alloys
Lower chemical
resistance than
zirconium in oxalic
acid.
55880µm/year
(80% by weight)
Good mechanical
strength properties.
9 Tantalum and
alloys
Chemical resistance of
tantalum has broadest
range of inertness with
respect to chemical and
thermal breakdown
susceptibility.
2.54µm/year
(80% by weight)
High density and high
cost.
using belt conveyor is to convert liquid sulfur into sulfur
pellets Examination of various metals and alloys shows that
only precious metals and refractory metals excellent resistant
to corrosion in sever operating conditions [4]. But only the
later class is the best suited for a long service, for a long time
under harsh conditions with good engineering properties and
moderate cost.The corrosion resistance properties are shown in
Table 1.

3. S. Pandey et al. / Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research 1 (2014) 71–78 73
Fig. 1. The flow diagram for constructing the stainless steel
conveyor.
For reducing the corrosive nature of belt due to highly
acidic nature of sulfur at high temperature either coating of
iridium or tantalum on steel should be carried out. Both
tantalum and iridium shows great resistivity towards
corrosiveness at high temperature. In the present note
comparison of both iridium and tantalum is shown in means of
cost, resistive nature, durability, temperature, effects,
availability are figured out [5, 6]. Alloys of molybdenum and
steel or steel and zinc can also be used but at such high
temperature the resistive nature of alloys is reduced and the
material coated by such alloys gets affected. For brief idea
about the two metals i.e. iridium and tantalum several
comparative results are attached to understand the corrosive
resistance nature of these two metals. A sincere attempt has
been made to comprehensively cover to reduce the corrosive
nature on the belt conveyor. An effort has been to study the
corrosive effect on steel belt as bench mark. Compare the
different material like Tantaline –Tantalum Surface Alloy,
Nickel Plating, Xylan (Fluoronated Polymer). Our hard work
towards the solution of IDP clearly ties to the application and
with guidelines on their putting into practice for implementing
control of a wide range of industrial process in industries.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1.Material
The Tantalum surface has a Rockwell B hardness of about
98 was arranged from Tantaline Co. Ltd. This is a hardness
that is similar to 316 SS. The chemical used for experiment as
listed below:
1. 100% Wet Chlorine Gas
2. Concentrated Sulfuric Acid 96% -98%
3. Liquid Bromine 99.8%.
Fig. 2. Finial constructed conveyor.
Fig. 3. Experimental Flow diagram for alloying.
2.2.Methodology
For the design of conveyor was done Bringas, 1995. The
design of the belt conveyor must begin with an evaluation of
the characteristics of the conveyed material and in particular
the angle of repose and the angle of surcharge [7]. The angle
of repose of a material, also known as the “angle of natural
friction” is the angle at which the material, when heaped freely
onto a horizontal surface takes up to the horizontal plane. The
area of the section “S” may be calculated geometrically adding
the area of a circle A1 to that of the trapezoid A2 [8]. In Fig. 1
shows the construction of conveyor and Fig. 2 shows the final
version.
2.3.Experimental
Through the evolution of acid resistant tantalum coating
has been developed. This technology has the capability of
producing very repeatable and consistent pinhole free surface
of pure tantalum metal at thicknesses between 0.002" ‒ 0.008"
(50‒200 um) [9]. Unlike spray tantalum coatings that are line
of sight, the Tantaline process is geometry independent and
even the most complex parts could be treated both internal and
external surfaces. In addition because the tantalum metal is
grown into the substrate and alloy bonded, typical coating
modes of failure like delimitation, chipping and spalling are
virtually non-existent. Thermal sprays have typically been used

4. 74 S. Pandey et al. / Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research 1 (2014) 71–78
Fig. 4. Effect of chlorine gas on (a) Tantaline (b) Nickel (c) Xylane (d) Stainless steel.
to create various metal coatings including tantalum metal
coatings. Thermal spray was carried out for the alloying of
tantaline alloying. The oxide formation and void occurred
during the experiment is shown in Fig. 3.
1. First thermal sprays are line sight and are highly
dependent on the geometry of the substrate whereas
Tantaline is geometry independent because it utilizes a
gas phase process.
2. Second, a thermal spray coating creates molten
globules of the source that are and projected to the
surface. Because of the relative size of the globules,
voids, oxide inclusions and brittle oxides are common.
3. Compared to thermal sprays, the Tantaline process
occurs on an atomic level virtually eliminating the
chance of creating voids and oxide inclusions which
allows Tantaline to creating a 100% dense, ductile and
stress free surface.

5. S. Pandey et al. / Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research 1 (2014) 71–78 75
Fig. 5. Effect of Sulphuric acid on (a) Tantaline (b) Nickel (c) Xylane (d) Stainless steel.
3. Results and discussion
3.1.Effect of chlorine gas
The effect of chlorine gas on the conveyor of stainless steel
was carried out with different alloying material which is shown
in Fig. 4. It was found that alloying with tantaline on SS show
best result as compared to other. The surface has no roughness
or bearing occurred. The Tantalum process generally mirrors
the surface roughness of the starting substrate materials. Due
to the Tantaline surface is grown at a molecular level it tends
to slightly improve the surface finish and decrease the Ra
value for standard materials. Tantalum can achieve virtually
any surface roughness as the Tantalum surface could be
polished using traditional polishing techniques. When alloying
with the nickel on steel conveyor it observed that corrosion
directly act on the metal and second sample totally dissolved.
Similar result was found when alloy with xylane and directly
apply the chlorine gas in SS conveyor. In DM water the
amount of chloride present is around 2 ppm. When the water is
in use, it gets vaporized or some loss of water is seen. Due to
water loss the amount of water reduces but the amount of
chloride in the water remains as it is. For this make water is
added to the underground water pit. The process is continued;
since the water is added the amount of chloride increases in
water i.e. chlorides get accumulated [10]. Thus the
concentration of chlorides increases. Amount of chlorides
below 50ppm doesn’t corrode the steel belt but more than that
will affect the belt. The chlorides are found only upto 20ppm
according to the lab results.

6. 76 S. Pandey et al. / Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research 1 (2014) 71–78
Table 2 Corrosion Resistivity of Different Alloying Material.
S.No Corrosive chemical Titanium Zirconium Hafnium Niobium Tantalum
1 HCL 30% fuming at 6000c Poor
(>1250)
Excellent
(<25)
Excellent
(<25)
Poor
(>250)
Excellent
(<2.54)
2 H2SO4 80% boiling Poor
(>1250)
Poor
(<500)
Poor
(<500)
Poor
(5000)
Excellent
(<2.54)
3 HNO3 70% boiling Good
(<125)
Excellent
(<25)
Excellent
(<25)
Excellent
(<25)
Excellent
(<2.54)
4 KOH 50% boiling Poor
(2700)
Excellent
(<25)
Excellent
(<25)
Poor
(>300)
Poor
(300)
5 H2O2 30% boiling Poor Excellent
(0)
Excellent
(0)
Poor
(>500)
Excellent
(<2.54)
6 H 2C 2O2 10% Poor
(>1250)
Excellent
(<25)
Excellent
(<25)
Excellent
(1250)
Excellent
(<2.54)
7 Aqua regia
(3HCL and 1 HNO3)
Excellent
(0)
Poor
(<25)
Poor
(<25)
Poor
(<25)
Excellent
(<2.54)
8 HF 10% at RT Poor
(>1250)
Poor
(<1250)
Poor
(<1250)
Poor
(>1250)
Poor
(>1250)
9 Mineral acid
With 200 ppm F -
Poor
(>1250)
Poor
(<1250)
Poor
(<1250)
Poor
(>500)
Poor
(>500)
Fig. 6. Effect of liquid bromine on (a) Tantaline (b) Nickel (c) Xylane (d) Stainless steel.

7. S. Pandey et al. / Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research 1 (2014) 71–78 77
3.2.Effect of sulphuric acid
The effect of sulphuric acid was on SS conveyor is shown
in Fig. 5. It was found that there no more effect of sulphuric
acid on SS conveyor when alloying with the tantaline and
xylane. But when it was alloying with nickel corrosion
occurred on the surface. When directly sulphuric acid was
applied on very light etching is occurred on the surface of
conveyor. The steel belt is always in contact with highly
corrosive element sulphur. Also low pH of water will also
contribute in the corrosion of steel belt. Due to repeated use of
same water for cooling in closed loop some kinds of
microorganism i.e. bacteria’s and fungi develops in the water.
These bacteria will produce acidic byproducts [12]. Thus this
will result in the decrease of pH of water.
Depending upon the aggressiveness of corrosive
media,there is a wide range of metallic construction materials
ranging from steel to non ferrous alloy used in CPI devices.
The main corrosive media usually found in chemical processes
are essentially: sulphuric acid, nitric, hydrochloric acid and
strong alkalis. So in order to give a simplifying approach,
acids are taken for example. There is arbitrary choice allows
one to give for each material an order of magnitude of
corrosion rate in this medium. Several metallic metals are
listed according to their corrosion resistance properties. The
other criteria for selecting metallic construction properties
such as mechanical, electrical and thermal properties together
with cost. It was also observed that the corrosive resistance
nature of Titanium, Zirconium, Hafnium, and Niobium are
less than Tantaline [13]. They are not shown good resistivity
as compared to tantaline in different acidic medium which is
mention on Table. 2.
3.3.Effect of liquid bromine
The effect of liquid bromine on SS was carried with
alloying with different material is shown in Fig. 6. It was found
that there not affect of liquid bromine when SS conveyor was
alloying with tantaline material. When same experiment was
did with nickel alloying it was found that some denting and pit
are occurred and nickel coating are remain on the surface. The
xylane also did not show the good result some spot and
blistering are occurred on the surface. It was also observed that
when liquid bromine directly applied to SS conveyor corrosion
was occurred on the surface. Generally conductivity was found
1200 µs/cm2 as the amount of bromine in the water increases
this results in the increase in the conductivity of water.
3.4.Scanning Electron Micrograph
To determine the internal structure (Scanning electron
micrograph) of metal conveyor after alloying with different
material was shown in Fig. 7. It was found that the tantaline
sticky and compact to SS conveyor. There no hole or denting
was observed on the surface and the internal molecular
structure is also compact. Which did not allowed the external
material to join with them.
3.5.Fourier Infrared Transformed study
To determine the composition of the alloying material
Fourier transformed infrared study are shown in the Fig. 8. It
was found that before using as conveyor the percentage is very
high and after used the percentage of tantaline is available on
the surface of conveyor.
Fig. 7. Scanning electron microscopic of tantaline alloying stainless
steel plate.
4. CONCLUSION
The conveyor system is essential to maintaining our
production lines, our shipment basically, without these
conveyors, modern life would grind to a halt, and our factories
and industries would not be able to feed consumer demand for
products. To overcome the problem of corrosion in steel belt
conveyor in pelletizer unit coating should be done of the metal
which resist corrosion at high temperature. Tantalum is such a
metal with all the properties to resist corrosion at high
temperature and have excellent durability which can be
prolong used without undergoing much distortion. Several

8. 78 S. Pandey et al. / Journal of Chemistry and Materials Research 1 (2014) 71–78
Fig. 8. Fourier Transform Infra red for alloying with tantaline (a) before experiment (b) after treatment.
corrosion tests between tantalum and other metal has been
carried out at high temperature under various acidic conditions
and it is found that tantalum is the only metal to undergo the
entire test without losing its structural strength. Therefore in
pelletizer unit tantalum metal can be used for coating on steel
to reduce the effect of hydrogen sulphide. Besides its excellent
chemical resistance tantalum metal exhibits numerous physical
properties of interest to chemical engineers. These properties
are suited for chemical industries. These additional assets
bring tantalum closer to other high performance metals and
alloys used in industrial applications. A better electrical
conductivity compared to other common refractory metals is
responsible for its uses in association with niobium as base
metal for platinized anodes as a replacement for titanium.
These anodes are widely used for cathodic current protection
in sea water and are suited to large surface area plants and
vessels when localized anodic current densities. Tantalum is
widely used for heat transfer devices working in concentrated
acidic media. Its good tensile strength is required for the
manufacture of some devices.
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