Conveyor Scope Split Across Chinese Suppliers: Five Interface Hold Points

Many EPC and mining procurement teams assume that if every component on a conveyor bill of materials is bought to a recognised standard, the system will start up cleanly. It often does not. The failure is rarely in the parts. It is in the interfaces between parts, when each supplier has individually passed factory acceptance testing.

This is the checklist we run with clients when conveyor scope is split across several Chinese vendors.

1. Belt

Confirm the cover grade matches the duty under the belt standard specified, such as DIN 22102 or ISO 14890 for textile belts and DIN 22131, ISO 15236 or AS 1333 for steel cord. Then ask for the splice test record from the belt manufacturer, not just the cover hardness certificate. The splice is where a belt fails first.

2. Pulleys

Pulleys are designed to the loads calculated under DIN 22101 or CEMA. The hold point skipped most often is the shaft and shell run-out check after final machining. Ask for the dial-gauge report before crating.

3. Drive train

Motor, gearbox and coupling usually come from three different vendors. The interface that fails is the alignment between the gearbox output shaft and the pulley shaft after installation on site. A pre-shipment alignment check on a fixture at the gearbox factory closes most of this risk.

4. Idlers

Idlers to ISO 1537 or CEMA should be tested at the idler manufacturer, not only at the bearing supplier: run-out, rotational resistance and seal performance, with test records per production batch rather than per design qualification.

5. Structural steel

Gantries and supports should be fabricated to EN 1090 EXC2 at minimum. The interface failure here is bolt-hole alignment between sections made in different fabrication shops. A full dry-fit at the lead fabricator before galvanising is the most underrated control on the list.

Where commissioning problems come from

When every component passes FAT individually but the conveyor will not start at first commissioning, the cause is almost always in the interface document trail rather than in any single component.

Running a conveyor package split across Chinese suppliers? Send the bill of materials and we will mark the interface document gaps within 24 hours.

Meritus Technology Shanghai
Email: sales@meritustech.com
Phone / WhatsApp: +86 134 8206 1802
www.meritustech.com