In October 2024, Continental expanded its plant in Brazil to manufacture very heavy duty steel cord conveyor belts for mining. IM Editorial Director Paul Moore caught up with Sven Hlywiak, Vice President, Customer Engineered Solutions, Industrial Solutions Americas at Continental and Lucas Sielemann, Senior Product Owner at Continental to discuss its leadership in mining belts and its latest monitoring technologies
Sven Hlywiak, Vice President, Customer Engineered Solutions, Industrial Solutions Americas at Continental
Q When people talk about high tension mining conveyor belts including the ST10000, these are the most challenging to manufacture – can you comment on your position in this part of the market and recent investments in it?
SH: When it comes to the ST10000, we remain the only company with a steel cord belt of this ultra high strength actually in service – our Phoenix Phoenocord ST10000 belt was first put into service in 2020 at Codelco’s Chuqicamata Underground copper mine on the TAKRAF 7 km inclined tunnel conveyor flight that brings copper ore to surface with an elevation gain of 950 m. This is something our team is rightly very proud of, as its development took a long time, working out how we could produce a belt of this strength and complexity efficiently. And today we have gone into serial production at our newly expanded Ponta Grossa, Brazil operation – the investment included production lines featuring advanced new rubber mixing, rubber blanket calendering, vulcanisation, and inspection technologies, with the aim of guaranteeing excellence at every stage of the process. We can produce the ST10000 in lengths weighing up to 60 metric tons.
Q What is technically special about the Phoenocord ST10000?
SH: The special Sybercord cord design in combination with the highest manufacturing and quality standards and advanced splicing technology provides a unique, reliable and unmatched product. Splicing methods, which have been validated by Continental and on independent two-pulley splice testers, result in dynamic splice efficiencies that outperform any standard. Advanced cover compounds and the insulation gum’s superior adhesion combine to provide the impact, tear and abuse resistance that make it unique. And we back all this up with our conveyor belt monitoring systems to generate an overall picture of conveyor belt health.
Q How significant is the expansion of the Brazil operation in terms of mining belts?
SH: It is hugely important for us – we had the capability to make these ultra durable mining belts in Germany and Australia, but not in the Americas – with Ponta Grossa we have addressed that. This means we are closer to our customers in key mining markets like Chile, Peru and Brazil with these products – whereas before they had to be shipped much longer distances. South America is actually the largest global market for belts like the ST10000. We are happy with the technology investment we have made that is now paying off, and of the local team we have in place, both on the manufacturing and sales side but also R&D. Also I would like to say we are not just a belt supplier – we support our customer with the splicing and commissioning as well as ongoing service to ensure they can maximise uptime. We also have technology in pulleys such as our Eco Extreme pulley cover compounds that in some cases can reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. Continental, we believe, is a true solution provider for mining, helping customers make their operations better. This is also where digitalisation and our monitoring solutions come into play.
Q Can you give some examples of your digital solutions in terms of mining belt preventative maintenance and monitoring?
SH: Continental Conveyor Belt Monitoring Systems capture data about the conveyor belt health. These include magnetic systems like CONTI® CordProtect to monitor magnetised steel cord reinforced conveyor belts for cord damages and tracks changes in the splice structure; and CONTI MultiProtect which monitors equally spaced embedded magnetised rip inserts. The flat array can additionally monitor for steel cord damage and splice integrity. These are often combined with other solutions like CONTI RipProtect, a permanent radio frequency system to detect and minimise longitudinal conveyor belt rips by monitoring the condition of a series of embedded inductive sensor loops; and CONTI SurfaceProtect, an online laser system that monitors the surface of the conveyor belt by evaluating the cover condition for cuts and gouges or large impact damage events. Other solutions include the CONTI ConveyorInspect drone-based inspection system to allow operators to easily know the condition of their belts and idlers, quickly locate the exact position of failing idlers, and track changes in rotating components over time. These are just some examples of the technologies we can combine into a solution for customers.
Q Which of these digital solutions has had the biggest market impact so far?
SH: I would say the biggest impact has been from combined systems and strategies when it comes to belt monitoring. It is a combination of different detection methods that gives you an overall understanding. You combine visual and temperature inspection with radar and other sensor data – and with our latest digital hub solution, the Conti+ 2.0 app, customers can see in real time both static and dynamic data from belt monitoring systems and other sensors on one centralised platform. It includes a module which uses the Internet of Things to process, analyse and visualise all important sensor data. I would say overall that Continental has the most comprehensive offering across the board for mining conveyors in terms of products, service, support and digital solutions – a truly holistic approach.
Lucas Sielemann, Senior Product Owner at Continental
Q Can you talk a bit more about Conti+ 2.0 and the potential it has to add value to mining customer operations? How do customers add it as an option?
LS: Conti+ 2.0 is our comprehensive and state of the art asset management tool for conveyor systems. With it we can import both static and dynamic data – essentially covering everything related to the conveyor health and performance. It includes a complete conveyor system visual overview with movement direction plus all the main data points that you can manage and which are important in understanding the health of the system covering the belt itself but also idlers, pulleys and other components. If you need to replace something, we can also capture that process in our system, making it much easier to plan component replacement and management. In terms of overall data, some of that is manually inputted by Continental, its distributors and customers; then we also connect with our monitoring devices like CONTI MultiProtect for real time data. Any damage will be marked on the overall conveyor, then you can drill down to see the exact location and the nature of the damage – which in this case is a magnetic field image of the steel cords inside the belt which will show up even in minor rips. This data is also connected to the PLC of the customer, so if any critical damage happens, they are able to stop the system immediately. Conti+ also has a number of different modules – these include basic module tools to carry out technical calculations and access to all master data, plus an inspection module where technicians can walk the conveyor belt and input their observations, including pictures, which can be compiled into an inspection report. An IoT module bundles both static and dynamic data on one centralised platform, and an engineering module provides support as early as the plant design stage. Conti+ is also very useful for large sites where there are a lot of parties involved, such as contractors – and you can make the system accessible to everyone who needs to see the data or can benefit from access to it. Currently Conti+ has software as a service subscription-based pricing model, with the cost very much dependent on the depth of detail that they need which will then dictate which of the modules are right for their operation. MINExpo 2024 was the official commercial release of Conti+ 2.0 for the Americas, but it was already in use at some other sites in other locations from mid-2024. It replaces the legacy Conti+ 1.0 system as we realised with the rapid advance of technology it made sense to build something from scratch rather than trying to continually upgrade the old system.
Q Are some customers more willing than others to deploy these latest monitoring technologies, or see the potential value more?
LS: If you want to understand what is happening in your conveyance system, in order to have meaningful predictive maintenance and avoid catastrophic failures; which in the case of conveyors means a total production standstill, then you need to understand what is happening across the complete belt and these technologies allow you to do that. But it is also about improving uptime. And the belt is just one piece of the system, these technologies also allow you to monitor the pulleys, idlers/rollers etc. Yes, there is an initial upfront cost, but it pays for itself many, many times over during the life of the mine because it allows you to get more lifetime out of your conveyor system. And very often when you detect something wrong with the belt, it is indicative of something else problematic in the overall conveyor system causing the damage, so it is helping to protect the overall system health as well.
Q Are the levels of orders for the highest strength and specification belts like the ST10000, ST9500 and ST9000 in South America increasing with major expansions at many of the large copper mines? Is the push to net zero also a factor with a move away from large trucks where possible?
SH: Conveying remains the most efficient way of transporting large tonnages of mined material from A to B. So aside from the fact they are all electric, which is also a big factor today with decarbonisation targets, they are also the most economical solution. And this high tonnage efficiency is really important with regard to these large mine expansion projects you mention because the mines want to maximise output, especially where they are accessing new higher grade ore, for example, that they need to blend with lower grade material.
Q Are you seeing increasing competition from Chinese suppliers in the premium part of the mining conveyor belt market?
SH: There is no doubt that just as in other parts of the mining market, Chinese belt suppliers are making their presence felt in key markets including Australia and Africa. That said, our relationships with our mining customers are based on many years of trust and cooperation based on the consistent quality of our offering and support. However, we know we have to remain competitive and not stand still – we continue to evolve and develop our product portfolio and focus even more on how we can help the customer optimise their conveying systems and help them meet their production and cost targets.