Abstract
This paper looked at the design of a power saving
conveyor system which involves sizing, selection and cost
benefit analysis of its installation. This paper focuses on factors
that cause high belt power consumption and costs which are
high starting torque and more operating hours hence there is
design of drive control system consisting of soft starters and
variable speed drives to reduce starting torque and load
detecting switching system to reduce number of operating
hours. The average power savings considering all the factors of
reducing the system operating hours to the average of 12 hours
a day and drive control system that reduces the starting power
were calculated to be 47%. The annual costs of power
consumption were reduced from $86212 to $40520 resulting in
the payback period after investing to be 8 months. After doing
cost benefit analysis it was ascertained that installation,
operation and maintenance costs of the designed system are
less than that occur on the initial system hence the design is
worthy to install since it results in cost savings and increase in
system life. The are some recommendations for the designed
system which are clean ventilated environment to promote
adequate cooling, belt protection against overload to avoid
stops and also soft starters , variable speed drives and sensors
protection against overvoltage and overcurrent so that the
drive control system will not fail.