Design Conveyor Belt with 5 DOF Connected to a Lattice Boom Crane for Transporting Concrete

The aim of this paper is to establish the design process of a system that expedites concreting, the Topbelt. Two connected conveyors that provide five degrees of freedom are known as the Topbelt System. These two conveyors are suspended via a rope connection to a Lattice boom of a crane, Manitowoc 4100 S. The required concrete that should be handled by Topbelt is provided by a feeder. The suspended Topbelt system is capable of transporting concrete to levels of both higher and lower than the ground horizontal level. This concreting mechanism sweeps a circle of about 85-meter diameter, centering at the crane swing on the swing plane level.

The Topbelt is suspended using two winches, one of them is for keeping conveyor1 in its proper position and the other is applied to keep conveyor2 by a rope guide mechanism, which allows the rotational movement of conveyor2 with respect to conveyor1. Expediting concrete process in dam construction is the main advantages of the Topbelt system.