HELIX delta-T for WINDOWS - Standard Version

For details about the newly released Professional Version,

click on this picture Professional Version

Belt Conveyor Design Program - Standard Version

HELIX delta-T for Windows provides a powerful computer software package developed to assist design engineers, equipment suppliers and plant operators in belt conveyor design and optimisation. The conveyor design duty details are easily input from pull-down menus or by clicking easily recognizable icons relating to a particular design input. Choose the Full Design menu option and each input dialogue box will automatically be displayed. Alter any design parameter and instantly view the revised calculations to CEMA or ISO standards. The program will automatically calculate the belt tensions and friction factor in the system, select a suitable belt from the database, calculate the pulley and shaft sizes required, select a suitable electric motor, fluid coupling and gearbox from the databases, calculate the idler shaft deflections and bearing life. The full conveyor design is then presented in reports that can be viewed, printed or exported. In addition to a comprehensive instruction manual context sensitive on screen Help will guide you through the operating procedures and provide the formulae used in the calculations.

Helix delta-T - Design Input

The conveyor design duty details are easily input from pull-down menus or by clicking easily recognizable icons relating to a particular design aspect. This feature allows you to choose the Full Design menu option which automatically displays each input dialogue box or to select a specific design option for quick input or design changes. To assist with design input the program features context sensitive on screen Help. This means that wherever you are and press F1, Help relating to that particular subject will be displayed. This includes instructions, the formulae used in the calculations as well as look-up tables such as recommended belt speeds, idler spacing and others. You can return to any of the input screens, alter a design parameter, press the Calc button and view the effects of the change.

Example of conveyor Sections Input Screen

You can enter as many conveyor sections as you require. Each section can have a different capacity in tonnes/hr to cater for multiple loading points and trippers.

Conveyor Duty Input

Conveyor Duty inputs are entered on this screen. You can also choose the belt category to select from. Belt categories can cover different belt manufacturers specifications and also differentiate between types of belt such as Fabric, Steel or Solid Woven.

There are many other input screens which cover the wide range of parameters required for a conveyor design.

Helix delta-T - Design Features

• Design calculations to CEMA or ISO standards
• Automatic belt width, class and ply selection or manual input
• Friction factor automatically calculated or user specified
• Calculates for any number of conveyor sections, lengths and lifts
• Drive configuration options for single head, tandem head, tandem return, dual and tail pulley drives

• Tension adjustments allow expert users to make manual adjustments for ancillary equipment such as hopper loading, trippers or intermediate drives
• Minimum convex and concave curve radii automatically calculated or manually specified for existing conveyor installations
• Tensions for different loading conditions can be viewed graphically at any point on the conveyor

Helix delta-T Material and Equipment Databases

MATERIAL DATABASES

The material database is provided with over two hundred common materials and their properties. The database is fully user accessible which means you are able to add to or edit the list of materials. Simply select the material from the database and the description and properties are extracted for use in the calculations.

EQUIPMENT DATABASES

The following conveyor equipment databases are provided:

Belts, Idlers, Pulleys, Shafts, Motors, Fluid Couplings, Gearboxes

The databases are all provided with the necessary specifications and standards of well known equipment suppliers. The databases are all fully user accessible allowing you to add, edit, delete, display and print the contents. This feature provides the designer, equipment supplier or conveyor user with the unique benefit of completing the conveyor design calculations in accordance with their own selected equipment suppliers specifications or plant standardisation requirements. Importantly however, the databases can be individually password protected to prevent accidental or unauthorised changes.

Helix delta-T Recommendations and Lookup Tables

Lookup tables are provided with recommended belts speeds and covers, idler spacing, idler dynamic load factors, flowability of material and mechanical efficiencies of different speed reduction equipment. In addition a useful conveyor trouble shooting guide is provided and by simply selecting the symptom the most likely causes will be displayed.

 Helix delta-T - Design Output Calculations

The design calculations are performed to CEMA or ISO standards and an be instantly displayed and printed in various formats. The Design Summary for example details all the important calculations on a single page. Alternatively you can select a specific section such as the belt details or Idler details for a detailed display or printout. The subsections can be retrieved from the Design pull-down menu or by clicking on the relevant icon. Design optimisation is quick and easy as you simply return to the specific input section, make a change, redo the calculations and view the results. The following is a brief list of important calculations from the design output calculation reports.

• Conveyor long section indicating when section lengths are insufficient to accommodate the minimum calculated curve radii.
• Belt width, class, plies with detailed belt specifications including the required and actual percentage full.
• Idler bearing life and shaft deflection calculations as well as pulley and shaft design with sketch facility.
• Tension calculations graphically viewed and printed for conveyors fully loaded or unloaded, inclines loaded and declines loaded.

Tension Graphs for Fully Loaded, Empty, Starting and other conditions.

• Conveyor dynamics such as starting, stopping times and accelerations with coasting discharge volumes and mass.
• Fluid coupling selection based on peak torque and run-up torque limitations

An example of the Design Summary Report

All reports, graphs and drawings can be viewed, printed, saved as a file or exported to your Word Processor or Spreadsheet programs. Conversion routines for Microsoft Word, Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3, MS Excel and others are provided.

HELIX delta-T - General Calculations

A number of useful calculations can be quickly and easily performed and include:

• Convert t/hr to kg/m or kg/m to t/hr
• Calculate Pulley Drive Factor and Loading Impact
• Calculate Bearing Life
• Calculate Belt Power and Pulley Drum Speed
• Calculate Slope Angle or Lift
• Concave Curve radius and Convex Curve Radius edge tension and buckling calculations
• Discharge Trajectory calculations including sketch with X - Y co-ordinates
• 
• Calculate Pull-out Force from Hopper (Professional Version Only)

HELIX delta-T - Equipment Schedules, Costing Module, Saving Designs.

EQUIPMENT SCHEDULES

The equipment schedule option allows you to capture individual summary lists of Belts, Pulleys, Idlers, Motors or Fluid Couplings. The summary list can be for one or any number of saved designs. This feature is particularly useful for pricing, record, planned maintenance, standardisation or conveyor survey purposes.

COSTING MODULE

The Costing Module allows the user to produce a cost summary of the conveyor equipment with the prices retrieved from the equipment databases. The capital costs provide the user with a useful tool to evaluate and optimise the overall convevor design.

SAVING DESIGNS.

When the program is installed a sub-directory called CONVDES is automatically created. Each time a new design is started you are able to name the design file which is then saved to the Conveyor Design directory. Existing design files are then easily retrieved for alteration or printing purposes

HELIX delta-T - HELP FILES & INSTRUCTION MANUAL

delta-T is a simple to use menu driven program with prompted input routines and dialogue boxes operated from pull-down menus or by clicking easily recognizable icons. Context sensitive on screen Help is provided for all the functions and operating procedures. This means that wherever you are in the program and press F1.Help relating to that particular subject will be displayed. This indudes instructions, the formulae used in the calculations as well as look-up tables such as recommended belt speeds, idler spacing and others. In addition a comprehensive Instruction Manual is also supplied.

An example from the Help Files

HELIX delta-T- REPORTS AND PRINTING OPTIONS

The full conveyor design, including the graphics such as the tensions or pulley sketch, is presented in reports which can be viewed, printed or exported to Word for Windows, Excel, Lotus and other applications. This allows you to customise and produce professional design reports.

Example Report showing Pulley and Shaft Dimensions

HELIX delta-T -SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

To run the Helix delta-T version 3.0  program you need:

• Personal computer with 80386 or higher microprocessor.
• 4 MB of RAM.
• 9 Mb of Hard Disk space.
• 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy disk drive.
• Microsoft WindowsTM version 3. 1 or later version. (Windows 95 and Windows NT are optional)
• Enhanced graphics adaptor (VGA) or better resolution monitor.
• Printers, plotters and networks supported by Windows version 3. 1 or later.
• Microsoft mouse or compatible is recommended but not required.