A big ‘thank you’ to all the delegates and exhibitors who attended the recent Beltcon 15 conference. Your presence and interest added immensely to the success of the event, and we trust you all not only enjoyed it, but came away with new ideas and fresh enthusiasm for your profession.

As Paul Nel, chairman of the Beltcon organising committee commented, "Over many years Beltcon has become like a family gathering, where old friendships are renewed and new ones are formed. It is a place where friends argue issues, agree on possible solutions and leave each other with the knowledge and confidence that every question has an answer, even if the answer is yet to be found."

Once again, Beltcon lived up to its reputation as the best conveyor conference in the world. As recipient of the Australian Universities’ Award of Excellence, only papers of the highest quality, containing innovative and sometimes revolutionary information are accepted for this prestigious conference.

The event is organised and held in South Africa every two years, the purpose being to bring together both national and international speakers, each of whom is a specialist in a specific aspect of materials handling and conveyors. Presenting the latest developments in the industry, encompassing research, design and advances in technology, papers incorporated a variety of case studies and diverse operational and maintenance topics.

Accredited by the Engineering Council of South Africa, participating South African delegates can claim credit points towards the ECSA Continuous Professional Development requirements.

Lively question and answer sessions indicated the interest with which delegates received the presentations. One delegate remarked that the information shared by the speakers this year

was "an eye opener".

One of the primary objectives of the conference is to increase the level of awareness in the industry, both in South Africa and worldwide, to new advances and technologies in materials handling. A second objective is to update the industry with both investigative and current trends, thus raising the professional standards of manufacturers and alerting end users, such as mines, to the availability of new technology and added-value service techniques.

The papers were varied and covered a wide range of topics, case studies and strategic projections from across the globe. The overseas presenters included Prof Gabriel Lodewijks of Delft University, speaking on the logistic control of modern dry bulk terminals, and his fellow Netherlander, Ko Arts from Teijin Aramid, presented a case study on the use of Aramid reinforced conveyor belting. Australian’s Dr Craig Wheeler, University of Newcastle and David Hastie, University of Wollongong, spoke on indentation rolling resistance and experimental and predicted conveyor trajectories respectively, and David Kruse of the USA-based Advanced Conveyor Technologies Inc. presented papers on finite and discrete elements in belt and chute design. Peter Hills, hailing from Mechanalysis Ltd in India, explained how condition monitoring keeps conveyors conveying.

The twelve South African speakers, familiar to most of you as leading experts in their fields, covered topics such as idlers; SANS National Standards; flexible sidewall pocket belts; standard conveyors; stockpile enclosures; high speed tripper technology; fixed tension conveyor starting; commissioning of Assmang’s iron ore project, and digital magnetic imaging of steel cord belts.

Running concurrently with the conference was an exhibition where companies displayed and marketed their material handling and engineering products and services to the attending delegates. By all accounts, it was a resounding success, providing the ideal platform for networking with decision makers in research and design, manufacturing, and end users.

Sometimes regarded as the Cinderella of the mining and minerals industry, materials handling and belt conveying is nevertheless a vital component of the overall process, and it is conferences such as Beltcon, organised by members of the bulk handling industry, that set the standards to enable this industry to meet the challenges of the future.

Full details of the papers and presenters are available on the Beltcon web site: www.beltcon.org.za

We look forward to welcoming you to Beltcon 16 in 2011!

Best wishes

The Beltcon Team

Further information:

Chris Townsend

IMHC

P O Box 2963

Fourways

2055

South Africa

Tel: +27 (0)11 888-7163 and 782-3595

Fax: 086 503 4524

Email organising secretary here

Web: www.beltcon.org.za