Continuous improvement is no idle claim at Reliable. Two of the areas under the microscope recently as part of the OH&S Management continuous improvement program at Reliable Conveyor Belt have been the Incident Reporting and Investigation Procedure and the Fatigue Management Guidelines.

Revision of the Incident Reporting and Investigation Procedure involved an examination of the needs of our client base and the examination of best practice procedures. As the result of the changes we should see more immediate reporting, faster response times, improved depth of investigation and more effective remedial action. New definitions for incidents were adopted to help clarify and classify incidents and issues. The procedure is accompanied by a complete revision of the Non-conformance And Incident Report (NAIR) Form.

Fatigue management is a key issue for Reliable. Our employees are required to travel extensively to our customer sites and to respond to customer needs twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week. The Fatigue Management Guidelines now reflect the most recent university research on fatigue as well as meeting the requirements of Workcover guidelines. The procedural guidelines are accompanied by a new Fatigue Risk Assessment and an improved monitoring and reporting system.

Customers can take heart that Reliable Conveyor Belt is taking all steps to assist with safe contract management and continuously improving processes to that end.

During April this year Reliable Conveyor Belt once again completed its triennial Quality Assurance JAS-ANZ Certification Audit with flying colours. This time the Audit was against the New ISO 9001:2008 Standard. Prior to the audit the Quality Assurance Manual and Procedures were reviewed and revised to meet the revised Standard. 2009 is Reliable’s 12th year of continuous Quality Assurance Certification.

The three major Regional Branches were visited and audited by SAI Global finding the Quality Management System and all its systems, records and processes in place and working. The Certified System is registered to cover supply, installation, splicing and maintenance repairs of conveyor belt systems and also the lagging and refurbishment of conveyor pulleys.

One of the key advantages inherent in Reliable’s Certification is the inclusion of some of the key safety management procedures under the QA Certification banner. This includes the Equipment Test and Tag, Incident Reporting and Investigation and Hazard Management Procedures.

Reliable has been awarded a two year contract by Delta Electricity for the Conveyor Maintenance contract for two of its Power Stations in NSW, Mt Piper and Wallerawang.
The scope of work includes Belt replacements, Belt Cleaner Maintenance, Splicing and Pulley Lagging.

Mt Piper Power Station is in the Central West region of New South Wales.  Located near the highway to Mudgee, it is 25 km west of Lithgow, and 5 km east of Portland.
Wallerawang Power Station is in a picturesque valley 15 km west of Lithgow and about 160 km from Sydney.

Delta Electricity is the second largest electricity generator in the National Electricity Market. Formed in 1996, their generators produce around 12% of the electricity needed by consumers in the National Electricity Market, comprising all states and territories except WA and NT.

In May 2009, Reliable Conveyor Belt undertook the successful task of completing 11 x 1050mm ST2240 Steel Cord Splices on two underground Trunk Conveyors on the Ridgeway Deeps Underground Expansion Project.

Ridgeway Deeps is an expansion of Newcrest’s Cadia Valley Operations based in the Orange region of NSW.

Reliable also successfully completed the installation and splicing of the Underground Picking and Collection Conveyors which are 2000mm wide PN1000 5ply Goodyear Conveyor Belts. This project was completed on time and incident free.

Reliable Conveyor Belt has recently won the Macquarie Generation Pulley Refurbishment Contract at Liddell Power Station for the second consecutive time.

This contract includes the full refurbishment of Conveyor Pulleys such as Lagging replacement, Bearing replacement & new shaft manufacture.

The contract was first won in 2006 and was a new direction for Reliable Conveyor Belt; the current contract was awarded on 22 October 2008 and is valid until the 21 October 2010 with a 2 year roll over option.

With the award of this contract, Reliable Conveyor Belt has also carried out pulley refurbishments for the following sites: Drayton Coal, PWCS, Bengalla, Austar Coal Mine and West Wallsend Colliery.

January 2009 – Reliable Mudgee organised 4000 metres of second hand ST900 belt 900mm wide plus transport of belt, 100Kva power pack, winders and belt stand etc. Installed belt in 12 shifts around the clock with a total of 11 steel cord splices including clean up, replacement of structure and required cold repairs. Work / maintenance continues on 5003 plus other conveyors including general repairs and belt cleaner inspections and maintenance.

In May/June of 2009 Reliable Conveyor Belt were engaged by Port Waratah Coal Services at Kooragang Island in NSW to pre splice 4 x 300m rolls of 2000mm ST1800 Goodyear Steel Cord Belt. The requirement was to have two rolls, pulley cover up, for installation on the return strand and then using a mechanical join we rolled up the next two rolls carry cover up to allow for installation on the carry strand. This allowed us to have a total of 1200mtrs (approx 84T) pre rolled onto our 150T capacity belt winder. The outcome of this meant that during the shutdown window only 3 splices needed to be completed rather than 5; resulting in a considerable reduction in the shutdown window required.

During the shutdown outage the belt on the existing system was cut to allow the removal of a redundant stacker, including pulling the belt that was threaded through the machine. A second 70T capacity winder was then used to pull 1200mtrs of steel cord belt off in 4 rolls, 600mtrs of belt was then fed onto the system and around the new stacker that had been installed, the remaining 600mtrs was then installed onto the return strand and all three splice were completed.

The major equipment utilised for the job included:

In June 2008, Reliable Conveyor Belt won the contract to install 7600metres of 2000mm ST2240 steel cord belt at Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal on their L6 Jetty Conveyor. This job involved the pre splicing and flaking out of 17 x 447metre rolls of belt prior to the shutdown, to allow the continuous installation of the belt during the shut and dramatically reduce the shutdown window required. Due to the majority of the conveyor system running over water access was very limited and therefore the area for flaking the belt out was 124.4 degrees to the conveyor. This meant a turning station had to be designed, engineered and manufactured to turn the belt, whilst still managing the loads and minimum bed radius required to ensuring no undue stresses were placed on the belt or the equipment. The belt was removed using a 70T capacity belt winder and 2 Hagglunds drives were used to reduce the loads from the friction of the belt stockpile and also the loads of the belt being removed from the system.

Shown below are some of the statistics.

Task completed in 90 hrs – a world class achievement (planned 138 hrs)

Previous comparable: L5 - 7500m in 2007 - 168hrs and L5 - 7500m staged 1995 - 400hrs.

In December 08/January 09 Reliable Conveyor Belt completed the flaking out and presplicing of 4 x 702 mtr rolls of 1050mm ST3150 Steel Cord Belt at Austar Coal Mine. Austar is a deep underground coal mine located approximately 10km south west of Cessnock in the Newcastle Coalfields of New South Wales, Australia owned by Yancoal.

The 2800mtrs of belt was flaked out and spliced prior to the shut down window, meaning that the belt could be replaced in one continuous length and a significant time reduction could be achieved, without any risk. The project was accomplished safely, on budget and on time.

During the Drift upgrade process Reliable also realigned the entire conveyor structure on the system and relagged multiple pulleys.