Taking the Straight Line across Sand, River and Farmland

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Drive System Design

The belt performs the haulage function, as on conventional belt conveyors. The belt is driven and turned back by a drive drum in the head or tail station. After the material has been discharged, a turning device turns the belt by 180° to bring the soiled side of the belt upwards once more and to prevent residual material from falling off the bottom belt. The belt is turned once more before it runs onto the drum again in the loading station. The drive system is similar to that of a conventional belt conveyor and consists of a gearbox and an electric motor. Ropecon features two independent mechanical braking systems. All braking actions are regulated to ensure constant deceleration and a controlled stop of Ropecon under all circumstances.

The Solution for Berber Cement

When all conventional options to transport the material from one side of the Nile to the other seemed to meet with certain difficulties, Berber Cement decided to look into a Ropecon solution for its problem. The loading station is located right on the western shore of the river, immediately behind the crusher. The material arrives on trucks. The crushed stone is loaded onto Ropecon via a feed conveyor and a chute.

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Ropecon spans the Nile with a single large rope span between two tower structures positioned on either side of the river. It is not necessary to have a support structure in the river. The total length of the Berber Cement Ropecon is approximately 3465 m from the loading station to the discharge station. Its transport capacity is 700 t/h. Due to river navigation, the minimum clearance between the system and the high water level of the Nile must always be 21 m. The tallest tower is almost 80 m in height.

Apart from the crossing of the river, other aspects of the transport were also taken into consideration, one of them being the space requirements of ground mounted systems: In this desert country, the shores of the Nile form one narrow corridor of fertile land which is used for farming. A road would cut right through this valuable strip of land. Ropecon, a system that is elevated off the ground, is able to span this corridor with just a few tower structures and requires no division of the valuable farm land along the shores of the river.

No Noise and Dust Pollution

On the eastern shores of the river, several settlements border on the farm land. A transport solution that were to rely on trucks would expose residents to a considerable amount of noise and dust. With Ropecon such truck runs can be avoided, and along with them any noise and dust pollution. The system's low rolling resistance helps keep operating costs low, whereas the maintenance of an entire fleet of trucks as well as of a road would have resulted in considerable expenses. Virtually all moving parts of Ropecon are mounted on the belt, which means that they keep travelling through the stations where they can be easily maintained. No complicated maintenance lines or platforms are required. Any inspections of the line can be performed with the inspection vehicle.

Fast Design and Construction

Once the customer had decided in favour of Ropecon, planning and production started right away at Doppelmayr Transport Technology. Right from the start, all calculations must consider the situation on site, in particular the local climate with its great variation in temperature. Throughout their work, the assembly team also met with great challenges, among them the heat and several sandstorms. A massive crawler crane was needed for the assembly of the tower structures, some of which are almost 80 m in height. At first, several smaller sub-sections of the towers were assembled which were then fitted together to form the final tower structure. The first auxiliary rope used to pull other, stronger auxiliary ropes and finally also the track ropes, was taken across the wide river in a boat and had to be tensioned immediately so as not to hinder river navigation. This Ropecon has been operating since 2011 and acts as a feeder to the cement plant.

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