Collect ion of medium-sized part icles : mesh conveyor
Due to the vertical distribution of the plastic particles,
the conveyor needs to reach three meters below the water
surface. To discharge the debris into the hopper of the
shredder, the conveyor needs to reach up to two meters
above the deck. For a SWATH vessel platform this comes
down to a total height of nine meters and for the Spar
Buoy platform this is 18 meters. An angle of 45˚ was chosen,
so the lengths of the two conveyors are 13 meters
and 26 meters. The belt speed was chosen to be 1 meter
per second for both platforms.
In collaboration with the Dutch company Ammeraal Beltech,
a plastic mesh conveyor was selected. This belt type
is frequently used in apparatuses for washing heavy fruit
and potatoes and is therefore impact resistant, a favorable
property in an environment with continuous waves. A
belt width of 1,371 mm was selected to be able to handle
debris up to one meter in size. Ammeraal Beltech has
specified the costs of this conveyor to be €6,064 for a
SWATH vessel platform and €12,127 for a Spar buoy platform.
The selected conveyor includes cleats that will prevent
the material from sliding down the conveyor. Ammeraal
Beltech has also provided an engineering manual to be
able to calculate tensile strengths and required motor
power.