At a glance
Coal handling covers everything between coal extraction and coal combustion or export: conveyors, transfer stations, stockyards, crushing, blending, and ship or rail dispatch. Equipment selection depends on tonnage, coal characteristics, layout, and required availability.
Coal handling equipment scope
Coal handling equipment moves and stores coal between extraction and end use. The major equipment families are belt conveyors (the workhorse of bulk handling), transfer stations (where conveyors meet), stockyard equipment (stackers and reclaimers), crushers and sizers (where the receiving size needs reduction), feeders (for metered extraction from hoppers and silos), and dispatch equipment (ship loaders, rail loadouts).
Belt conveyors
Belt conveyors are sized by belt width, belt speed, lift, and material bulk density. Single conveyor lengths can exceed 10 km; total handling systems often integrate dozens of individual conveyors. Selection considers belt construction (steel cord or fabric), drive arrangement, take-up type, and the integration of belt cleaning, dust suppression, and protection devices.
Transfer stations
Transfer stations are where one conveyor discharges to another. Chute geometry, impact protection, dust control, and belt cleaning all integrate here. Poor transfer station design causes most of the operational problems in a coal handling system: spillage, dust emission, belt damage, and chronic downtime.
Stockyard equipment
Stockyards provide storage between supply variability (mine output, rail or ship arrivals) and demand variability (plant consumption, vessel loading). Stackers build stockpiles; reclaimers retrieve from them. Bucket-wheel reclaimers, scraper reclaimers, and bridge-type reclaimers are all used; selection depends on stockpile geometry, required blend capability, and reclaim rate.
Auxiliary equipment
Coal handling systems also include dust suppression, belt cleaners, magnetic separators (for tramp metal protection), samplers, weighbridges, and online analyzers. These are not glamorous but are critical to availability and product quality.