The world is full of conveyor belts. Pulled along a system conveyor rollers, these amazing components of technology often go unnoticed and are underappreciated, but the world would be a completely different place without them. They are utilised for everything from moving heavy cases around shipping warehouses to the crucial element in food production operations.
Deep within the Western Sahara, surrounded by no other thing but dry desert, stands the earth’s largest conveyor belt system. It is so big actually, that it could be seen from space. This massive structure expands over 61 miles and it is utilized to transport phosphate rock throughout the desert.
The automatic conveyor belt system starts its quest at the Bou Craa Phosphate Mine. Phosphate is required as a crucial farming fertilizer and this Moroccan-managed territory has more than 85% of the world’s current reserves. Phosphate is in demand around the globe and we all use up around 40 million tonnes annually, therefore it is clear why such a large structure had to be created. The belt type is ST 2500 and it is only 80cm wide but has a maximum transporting capacity of 2000 tonnes of crude phosphate rock per hour. The numerous conveyor rollers that comprise this system are very important to its smooth functioning.
The Bou Craa phosphate mine has been discovered in 1947 by the Spanish. The phosphate deposit located in the area have been uncommonly near to the surface and were of really high purity, therefore it made it a great spot to mine, though mining did not fully start until the 1960’s. Since the start of operations, the mine has continued to grow and now covers an incredible 1,225 hectares. Its production in 2001 was 1.5 million metric tonnes of processed phosphate, an uncommonly huge proportion of the world’s supply from a single mine.
The belt, which is functioning for over thirty years, finishes its 61 kilometer journey in the El Aain coast where its load is processed and distributed. The belt is not enclosed and over time, moving phosphate rock continues to be transported by the prevailing winds and miles of land south of the belt now appears entirely white from outerspace.
The Bou Craa conveyor belt has such a vital role to play that if it ever failed, food costs all over the world would substantially raise as supplies of phosphate fertilizer would become scarcer. Who would have thought a simple conveyor belt will be so fixed to the worlds food supply? With a modest amount of exaggeration, you might claim that the conveyor rollers and belt contained in this system are what allows millions of people around the globe to eat.
Go here for extra details www.conveyorrollers.co.uk
The Bou Craa conveyor is really a accomplishment of technology and exceptional. It’s improbable that we’ll see one more conveyor belt of comparable dimensions built in our lives.
