By: Paul David Neill (MH Advisor) 

Using the ship unloaders to unload the coal vessels, the coal drops onto belt conveyor CC01 from the ship unloaders. This conveyor had issues that lead to excessive spillages when coal unloading. The belt was found to be misaligned when inspected. A new self-correcting roller was added but unfortunately, this didn’t correct the issue. It was determined that the misalignment was from the tail end pulley. This pulley is exposed to the weather elements and the guide wheels had only one shoulder, of which the pulley could drift and affect the conveyor belt alignment. 

With the assistance of Track Team Specialist, Henk Fourie, the Maintenance and Engineering teams came up with a guide wheel for the tail pulley with two shoulders that helped the pulley and the belt alignment by reducing its drift. This also helped in centering the conveyor CC01 and reduced spillages. 

Great teamwork and a great win for Materials handling with less spillages and less wear and tear on ore equipment.