Martin® EVO™ Conveyor Architecture

A New Standard for Conveyor Design

The approach to engineering of bulk material-handling conveyor systems has changed little over the last 50 years. Designers have new tools to use such as computers and new materials to build with, but the basic "rules of thumb" and design details have changed little. This is despite the fact that virtually every safety, regulatory and performance requirement has changed.

The old school approach is to determine the design capacity, to do the minimum necessary to meet code and safety requirements, and to design for the lowest cost of construction. When these shortcomings are compounded with the thinking that the equipment can be purchased at "low bid" and still meet current production needs and safety and environmental requirements, the designer is asking for trouble.

It is time for a new approach to specifying, designing, and purchasing belt conveyor systems to meet these challenges.

The EVO™ System

The EVO™ System rethinks the problem of conveyor design from the ground up. It places more emphasis on safety, control of fugitive materials and ease of service.

By including in the design methodology elements that match customer needs for a clean, safe, and productive system, The EVO New Conveyor Architecture presents a system that cost competitive, and is flexible enough to be easily upgradeable to solve operation specific problems.

The EVO™ design system is based on a new hierarchy of needs for conveyors:

1. Design Capacity
   The system must reliably deliver the required tons per hour of bulk solid; if it cannot (comfortably) achieve the production goals, the scope of the system must be reconsidered.
2. Safety
   The system must approach is to utilize technology to design safe and material efficient structures but to exceed the minimum mandated safety requirements making conveyors safer to operate and maintain.
3. Cleanliness (Prevention and Control of Fugitive Materials)
   The control of fugitive material through improved design is a priority. The system must be designed to minimize the escape of material as dust, spillage, and carryback, and to allow the collection of any material that does escape.
4. Service Friendliness
   Many maintenance procedures critical to system operation or control of material can be accomplished safely while the belt is in operation, if the equipment is properly designed and the maintenance people are properly trained. Other tasks that can only be done while the belt is shut down can be made easier and faster if maintenance is considered a priority of the design.
5. Cost-Effective
   Often small upfront engineering changes-at modest cost--provide improvements that will be seen long after the initial concern over the modest added cost has stopped being a concern.
6. Upgradeability
   By building flexibility into the areas known to be problematic, the initial price of a new conveyor can be minimized while the long-term cost can be reduced when the addition of specialized components added only in those areas where they are needed.

Albert Einstein said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. A new conveyor design standard is an attempt to "stop doing the same thing over again". Martin Engineering's EVO™ Conveyor Architecture is the chance to achieve different results, with clean, safer, and more productive bulk material handling.

Additional Information:

> Architecture Whitepaper
> Engineering Literature